AGI – The Italian volleyball player Julia Ituma, aged 18, was found dead in Istanbulwhere last night he had played in the return semi-final of the Champions League with his own team, la Igor Gorgonzola Novara, against the local Eczacibasi. At the moment the only hypothesis that has made its way, also reported by the local media, is that of suicide.
The athlete is fell from the hotel window where she resided with the team and where she returned after the defeat in the match that led to the elimination of the Italian team. Ituma was born in Milan to Nigerian parents and followed in the footsteps of Paola Egonu, a star of Italian volleyball also of Nigerian origin, who has been playing in Turkey for two seasons, where women’s volleyball is a very popular sport.
The young opposite had arrived in Novara earlier this season after leaving Club Italia. Ituma was considered one of the promises of Italian volleyball. With the national youth teams she won the Eyof and the women’s Under 19 European Championship.
Ituma’s death would have occurred around 4, it is learned from sources close to the sports club. The death occurred while all her companions were sleeping, including the Spanish Varela Gomez, who shared the room with Ituma. Igor’s team is currently still in Türkiye.
Investigations in progress
The lifeless body of the Italian volleyball player was found this morning at 5:30 in front of the hotel where the athlete lived with his team in Istanbul and is now at the Institute of pathological anatomy and forensic medicine which will ascertain the causes of the death. Meanwhile, the findings of the Turkish scientific police are continuing, which is investigating the case and does not currently exclude any leads. According to Turkish media reports Ituma was staying in a room on the sixth floor of the hotel in Uskudar, in the Asian part of the city and fell to the ground from the window. A historic hotel and famous for most of the past volleyball players from istanbul because it was built next to one of the largest sports complexes in the city and is precisely called the ‘Volleyball Hotel’. A structure not new to this type of event, a circumstance that overshadows the hypothesis that someone has entered the structure with the aim of killing, also because, from what has been disclosed, there are no suspects from the analysis of CCTV cameras.
Investigators are focusing on the shoes the volleyball player wore in the hotel, but not at the time of her death. Ituma’s latest CCTV footage dates back to 11.50pm, when the young athlete was filmed in the hotel corridor where she had wandered for about an hour.
© Andrea Marangon/AFP the Igor Gorgonzola Novara team where Julia Ituma played
the Igor Gorgonzola Novara team where Julia Ituma played
The company expresses “deep pain and emotion”
“With deep pain and emotion the premature death of the blue volleyball player Julia Ituma. The tragedy would have occurred in the early hours of the day and the dynamics of the incident are being investigated by the Turkish police”, reads the official statement released by Igor Volley.
“Igor Volley all – concludes the note – wishes to express its condolences and participation in the pain of Julia’s family and her loved ones. The club and all its members, heartbroken by the loss, will keep a respectful silence on the matter pending the outcome of the investigation”.
The Italian Volleyball Federation has ordered a minute of silence, in memory of Julia Ituma, for all the volleyball matches that will take place between today and Sunday. “We are all dismayed by this tragedy which affects not only the volleyball world, but all of Italian sport”, says the president of the Italian Volleyball Federation, Joseph Manfredifollowing the tragic passing of Ituma.
A disturbing precedent
There is a disturbing precedent that links the city of Istanbul and Piedmontese women’s volleyball in the sign of an untimely death. In 2012 Julia Albiniplayer born in Verbania and who in that year – after a career that had seen her in the team in Novara, Busto Arsizio and in the top division in Switzerland – had won promotion to A2 with the team from Ornavasso, a small town in the Verbano, committed suicide in the Turkish megalopolis by throwing himself off the Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge, suspended over the Bosphorus, in the night.
Albini was 30 years old. His body was found by a fisherman at dawn near Beykoz, a district in the Asian part of Istanbul, not far from the bridge. The circumstances of his death were never fully clarified. The Turkish police believed that the suicide had occurred for sentimental reasons, linked to the end of her love story with her former coach, who at that time was working for Eczacibasi, the same team yesterday faced by Igor Volley in the Champions League semi-final League.
The new Egonu
Julia Ituma and ua great promise of volleyball which many indicated as the ‘new Paola Egonu’. Although the role was different, Julia spiker while Egonu is opposite, they resembled each other in athletic meansfor the height above the meter and 90 and for the ability to jump up to three meters and 35 centimeters, as well as having both Nigerian parents.
Certainly Julia, who would have turned 19 on October 8, he had a bright future in the national team ahead of him. Born in Milan and raised in the myth of her idol, the Cuban centre-back of Lube Civitanova, Robertlandy Simon, had started playing volleyball at the age of 11 in the Milanese parish club San Filippo Neri but was then bought by Savino Del Bene Scandicci, club of A-1. Already at 15 she had entered the blue youth team. At 16, in 2020, she had been the silver medalist at the European Championships with the Under 16 team.
In 2021, in Mexico, she had been defeated with Italy Under 18 in the final of the World Cup against Russia and the following year she had scored 21 points in the final won with Serbia at the Under 19 European Championship. In the meantime she had continued her high school studies of applied sciences. In 2022 she landed at Igor Novara after wearing the Club Italia shirt for three seasons, in A2, and there she found herself next to blue champions such as Cristina Chirichella, Caterina Bosetti and Eleonora Fersino managing to find her space despite being the player younger. She usually took over to make the owner, the Turkish Ebrar Karakurt, catch her breath, who will leave Novara at the end of the year. It also happened in the last match, the semi-final of the Champions League lost 3-0 in Istanbul against Eczacibasi in which Julia also scored two points.
Salvini “news we would never want to read”
“News that we would never want to read”, writes Matteo Salvini on Twitter about the tragic death of Julia Ituma. “So much sadness for the drama that took away Julia at the age of 18, a promise of blue volleyball. A prayer for her, a hug of closeness to her family and her teammates”, adds the leader of the League.
“I am saddened and incredulous in the face of the tragedy that took place in the night in Turkey and took the life of Julia Ituma. When these tragedies happen, the first question that arises is ‘why’?’. The investigations are underway, but whatever the circumstances may have been, they won’t bring Julia back with her radiance and her smile. all the movement of Italian volleyball in this difficult moment”. This was stated by the Minister for Sport and Youth, Andrea Abodi.
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