"This beautiful journey, like every match, has reached the final whistle." With these words full of dignity and profound emotion, shared via an Instagram post by his family, Igor Protti bid farewell to his public for the last time. The iconic former striker for Bari and Livorno passed away at the age of 58 following a long and courageous battle against colon cancer, which he openly described as a match "started 3-0 down," yet fought until his very last breath. The viewing room has been set up at the Cecina cemetery.

Protti was not simply a footballer who won; he was one of those rare men capable of staying permanently in people's hearts. A prolific scorer of the footballing peripheries, he wrote pages of pure sporting poetry. Most memorable was the 1995-96 season, when he became the top scorer of Serie A with Bari despite the team's relegation. To this day, he shares a stunning record with Dario Hübner as one of the only two Italian players to win the top scorer title across all three professional categories: Serie A, Serie B, and Serie C1, an achievement that, paradoxically, never earned him a call-up to the National Team.

In Livorno, he found his true home, forming a perfect partnership with Cristiano Lucarelli: Lucarelli was the impetuous face of protest, while Protti was the wise silence that required no shouting to be heard. With his passing, Italian football loses not just a forward with over 250 career goals, but the very embodiment of a bygone era of sports, built on loyalty to the shirt and deep, unforgettable humanity.