Andrea Fortunato
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| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Date of birth | 26 July 1971 | ||
| Place of birth | Salerno, Italy | ||
| Date of death | 25 April 1995 (aged 23) | ||
| Place of death | Perugia, Italy | ||
| Height | 1.78 m (5 ft 10 in) | ||
| Playing position | Left-back | ||
| Youth career | |||
| Como | |||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1989–1991 | Como | 43 | (0) |
| 1991–1992 | Pisa | 25 | (0) |
| 1992–1993 | Genoa | 35 | (3) |
| 1993–1995 | Juventus | 27 | (1) |
| National team | |||
| 1993 | Italy | 1 | (0) |
| * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. |
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Andrea Fortunato (26 July 1971 – 25 April 1995) was an Italian football player who played as a left-back. Fortunato was one of Italy’s most promising prospects in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and he enjoyed a successful yet very short spell in Italian football, before contracting leukemia; he died in April 1995. Throughout his club career, he played for Como, Pisa, Genoa, and Juventus, while at international level he represented the Italian national team on one occasion, in 1993.
Andrea Fortunato was born into a middle-class family in Salerno; his father, Giuseppe, was a cardiologist, while his mother, Lucia, was a librarian; he also had a brother and a sister. As a youngster, Andrea also swam and played water polo, in addition to football. He began playing football with the Como youth side at the age of 13, although his parents also insisted that he complete his high school diploma in accounting, in case his footballing career turned to be unsuccessful.
Fortunato started his professional career as a left-back with the Como first team in 1988, at the age of 17, making his Serie B debut with the club on 29 October 1989, in a 1–0 home win against Cosenza. The young player from Salerno played 16 times with the Lariani in his first season, who were relegated to Serie C1. He soon established himself into the team's starting line-up the following season, making 27 appearances in the league, as Como narrowly missed out on promotion to Serie B, losing out in the playoff to Venezia. Fortunato's consistent performances caught the eye of bigger Italian clubs – most notably Genoa. It was the Ligurian side who signed Fortunato in 1991; however, his limited opportunities with the club, due to the presence of the more experienced Branco in his role, led to an argument with Osvaldo Bagnoli's assistant manager Sergio Maddè. As a result, Fortunato was labelled as an "arrogant hothead", and was immediately loaned out to Serie B side Pisa for the 1991–92 season, where he made 25 appearances.
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