Juventus’ Juan Cuadrado Apologies Following Adrien Rabiot Comparison To Former Old Lady Star Who Died

Juventus star Juan Cuadrado has apologised following his comment made on the clubs Instagram post about the death of Andrea Fortunato.

Cuadrado responded to the post from his club, tagging team-mate Adrien Rabiot, whilst commenting, ‘Rabiot, it’s you!’ – likely referencing the similarity between the two players’ hairstyles.

The Colombia international issued a prompt apology soon after following his mistake.

Cuadrado wrote on his Instagram: “I take this opportunity to apologise to all the Juventus fans for the post I commented on.

“I only saw the photo without reading what had happened: I just looked and I thought I saw Rabiot. Sorry”.

Fortunato, who died of leukaemia on April 25, 1995, at just 23 years old, was remembered by the club who marked the 25th anniversary of his death. The promising left-back signed from Genoa was a hit with the Old Lady and became a fan favourite.

Born in Salerno, south-west Italy, Fortunato, who was signed by Juventus in 1993 under the tenure of Giovanni Trapattoni. He came through the Como youth system at the age of 13 and made his Serie B debut four years later.

He made the move to Genoa at the end of the 1990-91 season as Como failed to regain promotion to Serie A. His time at the Il Grifone (The Griffin) was short-lived having found himself behind 72-cap Brazil international left-back Branco and a fallout with assistant manager Sergio Madde.

Joining Pisa on-loan in 1991-92, he made his Serie A debut the following campaign, helping Genoa avoid relegation on the return of his loan spell.

Having earned himself a place in the Italy squad for the 1994 World Cup, he eventually missed out, but was highly-rated at Juve. Later seeing his game time-limited again, he was diagnosed with leukaemia and sadly passed away in the same year.

Following his death, the next campaign saw Lippi’s side win Serie A and the Coppa Italia, in which the team dedicated the 1994-95 league title to him calling it ‘Fortunato’s Scudetto’. Fortunato’s teammate and goalkeeper Angelo Peruzzi also previously stated their Champions League triumph a season later was won for him.

Social media is a modern daily occurrence for players nowadays unlike the time when Fortunato was playing. It’s power is great if used correctly – just ask teammate Cristiano Ronaldo – who has the greatest following in the world with 215.1million global followers. That said, once you have posted, it is out there globally, good or bad.