The adoptive father of Seid Visin, the former AC Milan youth player who took his life, said that his son's death was not due to racism in Italy.
Visin played for Milan's Primavera side and top-flight Benevento before leaving professional football in 2017.
He was aged just 20 when he died.
It was widely reported that a note blaming racism was found by his side but this was refuted by his adoptive father, Walter Visin.
“That was an old letter from 2019,” Visin told the Repubblica newspaper and news agency ANSA.
“My son did not die because he felt discriminated against and I ask anyone to stop supporting this lie. As for why he did it, there are some questions that do not have an answer, as with any youngster who expresses his unhappiness.
“Everyone here loved my son and he was the same as ever. This morning we held the funeral and the church was packed with families and young people. That letter was just a moment of exasperation at the climate he felt in Italy at that time, but it had nothing to do with his suicide.”
The prior letter had been extremely critical of Italian society.
“Wherever I go, I feel the weight of the sceptical, biased, disgusted and frightened glances of people. I am not an immigrant," Visin wrote in the letter.
"I was adopted when I was a child and I remember everybody used to love me. Everywhere I went, everybody was talking to me with joy, respect and curiosity. Now it seems that everything has turned upside down.
“I had been able to find a job which I had to leave because too many people, especially the older ones, refused service by me. As if I was not already not feeling at ease, they accused me of being responsible because many young (and white) Italians were not able to find a job.”
AC Milan
The Italian club tweeted a tribute to their former charge.
Non ci sono parole giuste per dire addio a un ragazzo di 20 anni: i nostri pensieri vanno a Seid Visin, alla sua famiglia e a chi gli voleva bene. pic.twitter.com/sRSCExqw1x
— AC Milan Youth Sector (@acmilanyouth) June 4, 2021
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