Football, UEFA Champions League final 2025: Francesco Acerbi

Francesco Acerbi embodies what it means to be a warrior, on and off the pitch.

The Italian footballer has just helped Inter Milan reach a second men's UEFA Champions League final in three seasons, playing the full 90 minutes in their defeat to Manchester City in 2023.

At 37-years-old, he has also earned a return to the Italian men’s national team, called up for the first time in a year-and-a-half for June’s FIFA World Cup qualifiers.

It has been a dream season for the stalwart centre-back, who lies 90 minutes away from becoming a double continental champion, having already won the European Championship with Italy in 2021.

By no means has it been a journey without setbacks, shaped by his cancer diagnosis in 2013 but certainly not defined by it.

“I had two cancers, but I didn’t care. I knew I could beat them,” Acerbi told La Gazzetta dello Sport in Italian in February 2023. I was almost happy, it may sound like a paradox. I was saying: ‘Ok, I will face them’, like a football game.”

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