“Before euthanasia I want the Europa League.” But the story of the sick Roma fan was fake news

His story had gone viral. But in reality, according to what AdnKronos reports, it would be a fake. It all started with a phone call from a Roma fan, named Edoardo, to the Roman radio station Tele Radio Stereo during the broadcast of the program Te la do io Tokio. The boy said through tears that he was terminally ill and ready to go to Switzerland for assisted suicide and asked Roma to win the Europa League in the final in Dublin on 22 May.

“I have already made arrangements with a clinic in Switzerland, which sent me the dates. The Swiss are strange, it's like I'm planning a trip to a spa. One of the dates they proposed to me is May 22nd. And something clicked in my head, I said to myself 'But I have something to do on May 22nd'. Then I remembered, it's the Dublin final,” his words.

The story quickly went viral. She went around the web and also reached the Giallorossi club. So much so that Daniele De Rossi spoke about it in a press conference on the eve of Roma-Milan, the Europa League semi-final scheduled for tonight. “We will give everything for that fan and for all the others. The issue has touched us and the club is trying to track him down, as long as he wants it.” But it will be difficult for Edoardo to want to be found since, according to what Adnkronos reports, he seems to have invented everything or almost everything.

“We live in a society where if you feel bad you have to cry and feel sorry for yourself. If you appear to others as someone who laughs and jokes, then it cannot be true that you are suffering. If I made a mistake it was that I defined my illness as 'terminal', even though I later corrected myself, fortunately”, Edoardo's words intercepted by AdnKronos. “Mine is not a terminal disease – he added – but it is chronic and incurable. I've been living with it for years and I started an experimental treatment that forces me to go outside of Italy. But I'm not going to Switzerland at the moment…”.

“The end of life? It's an extremely relaxing thought for me, which is why I mentioned it. I hold on for my loved ones, for my wife, but with this chronic illness that destroys my daily life, with the doctor who has always assisted and operated on me and told me that there is nothing that can be done… well, it comes to think about.” For Edoardo “confidentiality is an essential skill”.

“What I have – he says – is known to my parents, two of my closest friends and my wife, who even last year, when we got married, took care of me lovingly in the bathroom without knowing the guests, who were naturally unaware of All. That phone call on the radio, which I never thought would cause such a stir, I made because it made me laugh that, even in a very painful situation, my thoughts were always on Roma, as they are today. I always joke, lightness helps me. For this reason, many friends who heard my speech live on the radio thought I was crazy, recognizing my voice. Many have called me, incredulous about what I'm hiding.”