Tottenham say they are “devastated” that fitness coach Gian Piero Ventrone has died aged 61. Check out his cause of death and wiki.
Gian Piero Ventrone : Wiki | Death | Cause of death
“As loveable off the pitch as he was demanding on it, Gian Piero quickly became a hugely popular figure with players and staff,” the club said.
Ventrone was part of Italy manager Marcello Lippi’s staff when the country won the 2006 World Cup.
After being diagnosed with leukaemia just days ago, he is said to have declined quickly, dying in hospital in Naples.
He has also held roles at Juventus, Catania, JS Suning, GZ Evergrande and AC Ajaccio.
Gian Piero Ventrone wiki
Born in Naples on 14 April 1960, Ventrone was nicknamed “marine” for his very hard and tiring training sessions. His rhythms and workloads knocked out a number of professional athletes.
Images of Harry Kane collapsing and vomiting and Son Heung-min almost fainting and lying agonising on the ground in a summer preparation in Seoul went viral.
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Date of birth | 14 April 1960 | ||
| Place of birth | Naples, Italy | ||
| Date of death | 6 October 2022 (aged 62) | ||
| Place of death | Naples, Italy | ||
Ventrone started his career in 1994, as athletic trainer for Marcello Lippi’s Juventus until 1999 and from 2001 and 2004.
Once ended his Juventus experience, he collaborated with Lippi in the preparation for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, won by Italy and he continued at Atalanta from September 2009 to January 2010.
But He worked with Antonio Conte at Bari and Siena and with Fabrizio Ravanelli, a player he trained at Juventus, as an assistant coach at Ajaccio.
He had been athletic trainer at Catania, Jiangsu and at Fabio Cannavaro’s Guangzhou in the 2017–18 season, before joining his friend Conte at Tottenham Hotspur in November 2021.
Death
Tottenham are fighting to come to terms with the death of Gian Piero Ventrone, their fitness coach. The 61-year-old Neopolitan, nicknamed “the Marine” because of his tough sessions, had leukaemia.
Also “We are devastated to announce that Gian Piero Ventrone has passed away,” Tottenham said on Thursday morning. “As lovable off the pitch as he was demanding on it, Gian Piero quickly became a hugely popular figure with players and staff. He will be greatly missed by everyone at the club and our thoughts are with his family and friends at this impossibly sad time.”
Ventrone joined Spurs last November as part of Antonio Conte’s coaching team and he was credited with helping to drive a radical improvement in the players’ fitness.
His most famous moment at the club came during the pre-season tour of Seoul when he pushed the squad through a brutal session in 30C heat, leaving many of them collapsed on the turf and some – including Harry Kane – throwing up.
The players could see the importance of his work, their respect for him was huge and it was evident when Son Heung-min celebrated with him after scoring a hat-trick against Leicester on 17 September.
That Ventrone was in the dugout so recently illustrates the sudden nature of his decline.
Cause of death
It was announced on Thursday morning that Ventrone, who was nicknamed ‘The Marine’ for his intense fitness sessions, had passed away at the age of 61 following a short battle with leukemia.
- Cause of death: Leukemia
Tottenham paid tribute to the Italian coach by wearing a tribute shirt to Ventrone before their match at Brighton on Saturday, with captain Hugo Lloris holding up a shirt with ‘Gian Piero’ on the back in front of the travelling fans at the end of the game.
Tottenham head coach Conte, who was emotional after a minute’s applause for Ventrone moments before kick-off on the south coast, revealed that he will be attending Ventrone’s funeral on Sunday and that the players were “devastated” by the news that Ventrone had passed.
“Tomorrow is the funeral. We are going with the staff,” said Conte after Spurs’ win over Brighton. “I want to give big hugs to them [the family], to tell his son and daughter that they need to be strong because Gian Piero was strong, a strong character. He doesn’t want to see us unhappy. It’s difficult to make him happy because we are really devastated by the pain.
“I have to be honest, it was really, really difficult for us to be here and to focus on the game because what happened in the last three days was incredible. I knew that the situation was really problematic after the game against Frankfurt [on Wednesday] but no one could have expected this situation because no one knew.