It is perhaps the greatest "mystery" of Italian football linked to crime news, unsolved after 32 years. But the story of Donato Bergamini, the former Cosenza midfielder found dead on November 18, 1989 on state road 106 near Roseto Capo Spulico, could be at a turning point. Because Donato, acclaimed by the Cosenza fans as Denis, would not have committed suicide by throwing himself under a truck, but would have been the victim of a murder studied by people very close to him.
The turning point. The thesis of the murder - supported practically from the beginning by the family members of Bergamini, a native of Argenta, a town in the Ferrara area - was therefore taken into consideration. Suddenly, ten days ago, and everyone hopes that it is the right time to reach the solution of the case, the gup of Castrovillari Fabio Lelio Festa, accepting the request of the prosecutor Luca Primicerio, has in fact sent for trial the former girlfriend of Bergamini , Isabella Internò, for murder aggravated by premeditation and futile reasons. The first investigation ended with the acquittal of Raffaele Pisano, the driver of the truck under which Bergamini ended up, from the accusation of manslaughter. At the time it was said that Denis had thrown himself under the vehicle to commit suicide after an argument with Internò, with whom he was in a lay-by on 106. A thesis always opposed by Bergamini's family, and in particular by his twin sister Donata which, since then, has started a real battle, gathering elements with the aim of reopening the investigation. In 2017, 28 years after the fact, the prosecutor of Castrovillari, Eugenio Facciolla, had the body exhumed and the examinations revealed what were defined as "inconsistencies" with the autopsy carried out at the time of his death. An appraisal ordered by the prosecutors then came to the conclusion that Bergamini had died "of suffocation". In the documents of the investigation file that has now led to the indictment there is also an information from the Pg section of the Police to the Castrovillari Prosecutor's Office, in which it is stated that "the evolution of the investigation activity and the findings emerged they mercilessly brought out how the murder of Donato Bergamini matured in the strictly family environment of Isabella Internò and that the dynamics triggering the crime are to be found in the tormented sentimental relationship between the victim and Isabella Internò and the end of the relationship itself ".
The soccer player. Death denied Bergamini a career which, at that moment, was evolving in a continuous crescendo. At San Vito, the curve led by a multi-graduated Franciscan friar, Father Fedele Bisceglia, in 1988 went crazy for the Rossoblu of the house of which, among other things, Denis - in Calabria since 1985 - was a darling. In the 1987/1988 season the team was promoted to Serie B under the guidance of Gianni Di Marzio. Cosenza challenged Cagliari, who had just been relegated to the third series: he did not play at San Vito, in the 2-1 Silano of the first day, Sunday 20 September 1987. He was instead on Sunday 25 January 1988, at Sant'Elia, in the 0- 0 against Tiddia's team. In the following year, in Serie B, again in Cosenza, he was part of the group coached by Bruno Giorgi, capable of ranking sixth and which included, among others, Bruno Caneo from Alghero, the future rossoblù Giorgio Venturin and Michele Padovano, then Juventus , friend of Bergamini. Modern midfielder and skilled in maneuvering, he had forged himself in Interregionale in Imola and at Russi: the move to Cosenza was the definitive crossroads for Denis' career in professional football. Maybe, in time, he would make it to Serie A.
The date. The trial, which will begin on October 25, may not be the final act of a macabre story. The Internò, in fact, was sent to trial for complicity in murder. According to the prosecutor and the investigators, therefore, the woman was not alone when Bergamini died. Who those other presences were still remains a mystery. After 32 years. When he was found under the wheels of a cursed truck, in Statale 106, Denis Bergamini was 27 years old: he had played 111 matches between Serie B and C and scored three goals.
