Almost a month after being released from prison on parole, after having served about six months of the effective sentence of three and a half years to which he was sentenced for the crime of aggravated extortion, Fabrizio Miccoli decided to reflect. And he was deeply sorry.
“12 years ago, I made a big mistake. One of those mistakes that change your life. I had it all. He was the captain of Palermo, he had the job I always dreamed of having as a child and the people of Palermo made me feel at home. In these 12 long years, I have always preferred silence. I read everything but never responded, ”the former Benfica striker began writing in a post he shared on Instagram.
Currently 42 years old, Miccoli was found guilty of having helped a friend to recover from Andrea Graffagnini, the owner of a nightclub called “Paparazzi”, a debt worth 12 thousand euros. For this, the former player contacted Mauro Lauricella, the son of a former mobster who is serving seven years in prison and with whom Miccoli had a good relationship since he played in Palermo. During the investigation, conversations between the two were intercepted in which the striker referred to Giovanni Falcone, an Italian magistrate responsible for many cases involving mafia bosses, as “that mud”.
“When you are a soccer player in Serie A, you get a lot of attention. Many people want a piece of you. Many know you but you do not know anyone. You don’t know who you can trust. In fact, I made more than one mistake. The first big mistake was always being available to everyone. Anyone who lived in Palermo in those years knows it. The second mistake was using the wrong words. Often when you are at the top, you feel invincible… But in reality you are only human. I apologized a while ago for those words and I will do it again,” Miccoli continued in the lengthy post.
Fabrizio Miccoli lost his last resort and appeared to serve a prison sentence. In Venice, “far from everything and everyone”, not in Lecce
Then the former player spoke about his time in prison. “The sentence came last year. Too bad I didn’t speak up because I felt distant and far from that world but too bad I respected when I spontaneously showed up the next day in a maximum security prison, again by choice. A day inside seems infinite, six or seven months… An eternity. I have served the greatest punishment in these 12 years, every day, seeing myself close to something that I am not and that does not belong to me, “he shot.
“A few weeks ago, I was released. I do not ask to be understood, I do not ask to forget what happened. I just want, after 12 long years, to clarify my position, to have my own voice, instead of others saying it. On the field, after a loss, you can’t replay the game you just lost. But you can train and try to do better in the next game. I am almost 43 years old and I hope to have many more ‘matches’ to recover and show the real Miccoli”. The forward ended, who also included a long list of thanks in the publication, including the team of lawyers who defended him.
Miccoli, former Benfica soccer player, sentenced to three years in prison in Italy
Fabrizio Miccoli began his career at Casarano and then moved on to Ternana, Juventus, Perugia and Fiorentina, returning to the bianconeri in 2005. During this period, he was loaned to Benfica, whom he represented for two seasons, then he left for Palermo, where he spent six years and where he was when the crimes occurred. He then moved to Lecce and finished his career in Malta, at Birkirkara, in 2015.
Source: Observadora
