He wanders into a hotel corridor late at night, then sits on the floor looking at his phone . These are the latest images of Julia Ituma , the 18 - year - old volleyball player found dead at dawn outside an Istanbul hotel after a fall from the sixth floor .

The phone that can be seen in her hand, also used later in the room, perhaps contains one of the keys to explaining the dramatic death of an athlete with a great future who had played with his team a few hours earlier , Igor Novara , in the quarterfinals of the Champions League against Eczacibasi Istanbul. In the footage, Ituma is seen leaving the room at 10.30pm to talk on the phone, it is not yet known with whom. She returns to her room at 11.50 pm after collapsing in the corridor. «It is an intimate matter of his, he must have had important telephone calls. They must have caused her this discomfort," said Donato Saltini, the athlete's agent .

A tragedy for the family, a shock for the teammates and for the world of volleyball and Italian sport, overwhelmed by the dramatic news in the morning.

The Istanbul police, who immediately began the investigation, seized the mobile phone and also ordered the necessary autopsy tests on Julia . He acquired images from surveillance cameras in the hotel and in the hotel area. One of these, aimed at the facade, confirmed that the girl fell from a height, running over the external tents .

Answers are sought and questions are asked about the frailties of age, of course, but also of athletes . "Only those who really knew you know how fragile you were", the post by Stella Nervini, a former teammate of the national youth teams.

Julia, born to Nigerian parents in Milan, where she was still studying in a high school, was in her first season in Novara after leaving Club Italia, with which she had achieved many successes, including under-20 world gold in 2021, and in 2022 the European one with the Under 19 and again gold at the Youth Olympics.

«He had the numbers to make a path of excellence. I saw in her the same qualities that I had seen in Paola Egonu. Dying at the age of 18 is something against nature», says the director of Club Italia, Marco Mencarelli. In the meantime, the teammates left for Italy yesterday afternoon, after speaking with the investigators. Among them the roommate, Lucia Varela, who according to the Turkish media would have told the Istanbul police that she hadn't noticed anything , because she had fallen asleep after talking to Julia in her room. The sporting director, Enrico Marchioni, and a doctor from the club remained in the city on the Bosphorus, who received the 18-year-old's mother and aunt together with the staff of the Italian consulate general in Istanbul and the embassy in Ankara.

Today the family members will be accompanied to the Institute of Forensic Medicine where Ituma's body is located to determine the exact cause of death, as foreseen by the investigators following the case. Then we will evaluate how to proceed to achieve repatriation .

Igor Volleyball has decided to maintain, together with all the members "heartbroken by the loss, a respectful silence on the matter". And there will be a minute's silence on all the volleyball courts in the matches that will take place until Sunday at the behest of Federvolley .

«We are dismayed - says the Fipav president, Giuseppe Manfredi -. We mourn the loss not only of a great talent but above all of a wonderful girl we watched grow up." Condolences also go out to the family and the team from the leaders of Italian sport, from the minister, Andrea Abodi , who says he is «sorrowful and incredulous», to the president of Coni, Giovanni Malagò , who states on social media: «Pain does not erase passion and the smile with which you conquered the world of volleyball. Bye Julia."

(Unioneonline/D)

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