Former Inter Milan coach Andrea Stramaccioni has saved two young tourists from drowning in the sea in southern Italy.
01.08.2025, 10:10
SDA
At the beginning of the week, the former football coach and current TV pundit bravely intervened in an emergency situation while on vacation on the Italian Adriatic coast, reported the "Gazzetta dello Sport". The girls, aged 17 and 19, would otherwise have drowned.
According to the 49-year-old's account, he was with his family on a beach in the Apulia region of southern Italy when he was alerted to the two teenage girls calling for help in the water. A lifeguard had already rushed into the water to one of the women without a buoy and asked him to look after the other. Once she was safe, the former football coach swam to the other woman and reached her before the lifeguard, who was struggling against the high waves.
The 17-year-old's situation was "desperate", said Stramaccioni. "She kept going under and coming up, but above all she had already swallowed a lot of water." A lifeboat that had rushed to the scene in the meantime was unable to reach the two of them because they were too close to the rocks. "That's when I got scared, especially because the girl was pulling me under the water. She was convinced that she was going to die," said Stramaccioni.
However, he then managed to bring the girl ashore between the rocks. "I literally threw her there and then went under myself. When I came back up, I lost my bearings and hit the rocks. Then other people threw me a rope."
Stramaccioni, who had coached Udinese Calcio and Panathinaikos Athens as well as Inter, was presented with a red lifeguard shirt by the coastguard on the beach. Most recently, he worked as a football coach in Qatar until October 2022.
