In these 22 years, his strength has been his daughter, "who cannot grow up seeing you suffer and cannot feel alone and unlucky for having lost her mother in that way." These are the words of the former rossoblù striker Cristian Bucchi, now 47 years old, who in an interview with Corriere della Sera retraced the dramatic moments experienced on March 3, 2003, the day his life changed forever.

That evening the footballer was returning to Cagliari after an away match against Genoa. When he entered the house he found his partner Valentina Pilla dead. At her side, little Emily , who at the time was only a year and a half old. A scene difficult to forget: the lifeless girlfriend and the little girl staring at her.

In that painful moment, it was his daughter who pushed Bucchi not to give in and not to let himself be dragged into a spiral of suffering. "A tragedy that is hard to accept. In that moment I asked myself if I had been there instead of playing football, if I could have done something. The sense of guilt is inevitable. Valentina had a sudden heart attack, she would not have been saved", explains Bucchi.

The drama, however, served to build a future that was more solid than ever. "We were all close to Emily, we told her the truth little by little, she doesn't remember, she was too young. Maybe it was a good thing. I didn't give up an inch and, as happened in other not so nice situations in my life, I even felt stronger afterwards."

(Unioneonline/vf)