Donato Bergamini

Denis Bergamini, born Donato Bergamini (Argenta, 18 September 1962 – Roseto Capo Spulico, 18 November 1989), was an Italian football player who played as a midfielder.

After starting his career in the lower leagues, he had his best professional spell with Cosenza, with whom he achieved promotion to Serie B.

His fame, posthumous, is due to the controversy over his death, initially attributed to suicide when his body was found on the State Road 106 near a town on the Ionian Sea. This reconstruction of the facts was never considered plausible by family members, investigative journalists and colleagues (such as former football players Michele Padovano, his friend and at the time teammate in Calabria, and Carlo Petrini, author of a book about his story ). In November 2017, 28 years after the fact, a new expert opinion ordered by the Castrovillari court attributed the football player's death to suffocation/strangulation; following this expert opinion, his ex-girlfriend and the driver of the truck under whose wheels the football player ended up were registered as suspects. The trial began four years later, and in October 2024 concluded at first instance with the conviction of his former girlfriend for complicity in the killing.

Early life and career

He began his football career in the 1982–83 season wearing the Imola jersey in Interregionale. The following year he played in Russi (also in Interregionale), where he remained for two seasons.

In 1985 he was bought by Cosenza, a Serie C1 club with which he would play for five seasons. In his first championship in the red-and-blue jersey he made 24 appearances without scoring a goal. The following year he played 28 games and scored two "important" goals (against Sorrento and Benevento) that gave his team the victory. In 1987–88 Cosenza won the Serie C1 championship and returned to Serie B after a 24-year absence. Bergamini was a starter in Gianni Di Marzio's team, playing 32 of 34 games. On 11 September 1988 he made his debut in Serie B in the Cosenza–Genoa match (0–0). In that season, perhaps the best in the history of Cosenza (coached by Bruno Giorgi), he also scored his first and only goal in Serie B, in the Cosenza–Licata match (2–0).

Due to an injury he only managed to play 16 games, but at the end of the season he attracted several enquiries from other clubs. Parma did everything to sign him, but Cosenza wanted to compete in a top championship and declared him unsellable, confirming him for another season, the last of his career. He played his last match on 12 November 1989, a 1–1 draw away to Monza, in which Cosenza's goal was scored by his close friend and teammate Michele Padovano.

Death

On 18 November 1989, Bergamini was found dead on the State Road 106 Jonica near Roseto Capo Spulico in the province of Cosenza. At the time, his death seemed to have occurred by suicide: according to witnesses, Bergamini threw himself between the wheels of a truck that dragged him for about 60 metres. The investigation was closed and, in the following decades, the suicide hypothesis was never considered credible by family members, fans, or teammates: the body did not present any wounds compatible with this version and was not covered in mud, despite the rain and puddles present at the site of the accident.

After his death, Padovano wore Bergamini's number 8 shirt in the Cosenza–Messina match (2–0) on 19 November, in which he scored the first goal, dedicating it to his teammate who had died the day before. The south curve of the Gigi Marulla stadium bears his name, and a bust depicting him is preserved inside the locker rooms.

Investigations Former Roma and Milan player Carlo Petrini tried to shed light on the mysterious death by writing the book Il calciatore suicidato ("The Footballer Who Was Suicided") in 2001, in which he provided some details on the footballer's story (facts that were never proven): according to him, organised crime was pushing to fix matches, and Bergamini, a clean athlete and leader of the dressing room, had opposed the pressure.

On 27 December 2009, "Bergamini Day" was celebrated in Cosenza, organised by the "Cosenza United" forum and the Ultrà Cosenza, and attended also by the footballer's family. The purpose of the demonstration was to demand truth and justice regarding the death of the club's idol and to have the investigation reopened, which at the time of the events had been filed too quickly as "suicide" despite numerous unanswered questions and unconvincing evidence. According to the family and Cosenza's supporters, Bergamini had been killed, and around 300 people marched through the city demanding clarity over his death. On 6 August 2010 a conference titled "Truth for Bergamini" was held in Aiello Calabro, and on 27 December 2010 "Bergamini Day" was held for a second year, at the Morelli theatre in Cosenza. On 14 June 2011, a formal request was made for the case to be reclassified as voluntary homicide and for the investigation to be reopened. On 29 June 2011, the Castrovillari prosecutor's office officially reopened the investigation on the strength of new evidence.

On 22 February 2012, the Reparto Investigazioni Scientifiche (RIS) of Messina filed their expert report with the public prosecutor's office of Castrovillari, according to which Bergamini was already dead when he was struck by the truck. Through various simulations, the RIS established that if the young footballer had thrown himself under the truck as his girlfriend reported, his shoes, necklace and watch would have suffered serious damage; instead, when the body was found, they were almost intact. An earlier expert report, dated 1990 and signed by Professor Francesco Maria Avato, was corroborated by the findings that the Castrovillari public prosecutor's office had requested after reopening the case. On 15 May 2013, a notice of investigation was served by the Castrovillari public prosecutor's office on his ex-girlfriend, Isabella Internò, who was suspected of murder.

For the second time, in May 2017, the investigations into his death were reopened. In June 2017, the Castrovillari GIP (preliminary investigations judge) ordered the exhumation of the body to perform a new autopsy.

On 16 November 2017, the autopsy results were filed, concluding that Bergamini had been killed and then thrown under the truck, staging the suicide.

Trial Four years later the trial began, with the sole defendant being the former girlfriend, accused of complicity in premeditated voluntary homicide aggravated by futile reasons: Isabella Internò had become pregnant and had an abortion, Bergamini had refused to marry her and had left her, and the prosecution maintained that this was the motive. The evidentiary examination of the exhumed body indicated that Bergamini had been strangled, possibly elsewhere, with the body then placed on the road and run over by the vehicle. Among the roughly two hundred witnesses heard were four former members of 'ndrangheta clans who had turned state's witness. Regarding the footballer's death, the collaborator of justice Franco Pino told magistrates, both during the preliminary investigation and again in October 2022 before the Court of Assizes of Cosenza, that it had not been a crime carried out in a mafia context, that no one had ever asked him to account for it, and that, from what he had heard, it had been a suicide.

2024 verdict On 1 October 2024, the Cosenza Court of Assizes convicted Internò at first instance and sentenced her to 16 years' imprisonment; the Castrovillari prosecutor's office had requested 23 years. The court granted mitigating circumstances that were deemed to outweigh the aggravating factors of premeditation and abject and futile motives.

Following the verdict, the court also referred the case files to the Castrovillari prosecutor's office over the possible false testimony of several of Internò's relatives, and named her brother, Roberto, as a suspected co-perpetrator of the killing.

Career statistics

Honours and legacy The south curve of the Stadio San Vito–Gigi Marulla is dedicated to Bergamini, and features a mural of the player. A square in the city of Cosenza is named after him. Cosenza Calcio withdrew the number 8 shirt, which Bergamini wore during his time with the club, until the conclusion of the trial into his death. Cosenza Calcio's club mascot is named "Denis" in his honour. A bust depicting Bergamini is displayed inside the Marulla stadium's locker rooms, and a further mural outside the stadium, titled Curva Paradiso, depicts Bergamini alongside Gigi Marulla and Massimiliano Catena. The seafront promenade of Grisolia has been named in his honour. An amateur club founded in Luzzi, D.B. Rossoblù Città di Luzzi, takes its initials from Donato Bergamini and features his number 8 in its badge.