David di Elias Alemu Tommaso (6 October 1979 – 29 November 2005) was a French professional
footballer
A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...
who played as a
central defender
In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring.
Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...
.
Early life
Di Tommaso was born in
Échirolles
Échirolles (; frp, Ècherôles) is a commune in the Isère department in southeastern France. Part of the Grenoble urban unit (agglomeration),Isère. His father
Pascal Di Tommaso
Pascal Di Tommaso (born 10 August 1954) is a French former professional footballer who played as a midfielder.
Early and personal life
Born in Grenoble, Di Tommaso is the brother of fellow player Louis Di Tommaso. His sons David and Yohan were ...
and uncle
Louis Di Tommaso Louis may refer to:
* Louis (coin)
* Louis (given name), origin and several individuals with this name
* Louis (surname)
* Louis (singer), Serbian singer
* HMS ''Louis'', two ships of the Royal Navy
See also
Derived or associated terms
* Lewis ...
Grenoble Foot 38
Grenoble Foot 38, commonly referred to as simply Grenoble or GF38, is a French association football club based in Grenoble. The club plays its home matches at the Stade des Alpes, a sports complex based in the heart of the city, and wears whit ...
in the 1980s. His younger brother
Yohan Di Tommaso
Yohan Di Tommaso (born 9 July 1983) is a French professional footballer who plays as a forward. He played at professional level in Ligue 2 for FC Rouen.
He is the younger brother of David Di Tommaso, a footballer who died in 2005 at the age of ...
is also a professional footballer.
Career
Monaco
Di Tommaso was promoted to the first team of
Monaco
Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Italian region of Lig ...
during the 1998–99 season. He made his professional debut under head coach
Claude Puel
Claude Jacques Puel (; born 2 September 1961) is a French football manager and former player. He spent his entire playing career with Monaco, before becoming manager of the club, leading them to the league title in his first full season in char ...
on 16 January 1999 against
Lens
A lens is a transmissive optical device which focuses or disperses a light beam by means of refraction. A simple lens consists of a single piece of transparent material, while a compound lens consists of several simple lenses (''elements ...
coming on as a second-half substitute for
John Arne Riise
John Arne Semundseth Riise (born 24 September 1980) is a Norwegian professional football manager and former player who played as a left back and a left midfielder. He is currently the manager of Toppserien club Avaldsnes.
With 110 caps, Rii ...
. After this match, he won a starting place for four matches alongside Julien Rodriguez against
Paris Saint-Germain
Paris Saint-Germain Football Club (), commonly referred to as Paris Saint-Germain, Paris, Paris SG or simply PSG is a professional football club based in Paris, France. They compete in Ligue 1, the top division of French football. As Fr ...
,
Le Havre
Le Havre (, ; nrf, Lé Hâvre ) is a port city in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the right bank of the estuary of the river Seine on the Channel southwest of the Pays de Caux, very ...
and Stade Rennais. He was part of the team that won the 2000 Ligue 1 title. He then played in the
UEFA Champions League
The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competi ...
and was selected for the French national youth football team.
Sedan
Di Tommaso moved to Sedan in 2001. He made 24 appearances during the 2001–02 season. In 2002, he received a call-up for the France national under-21 team to replace the injured
Julien Escudé
Julien Régis Paul Escudé (born 17 August 1979) is a French former professional footballer who played mainly as a central defender but also as a full back.
After making a name for himself with Rennes, he went on to play abroad with Ajax, Sevil ...
for a match against the French team against
Portugal
Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...
. He was a finalist in the
2002 UEFA European Under-21 Championship
UEFA European Under-21 Championship 2002 was the 13th staging of UEFA's European Under-21 Championship. The final tournament was hosted by Switzerland between 16 and 28 May 2002.
Czech Republic U-21s won the competition for the first time.
Qu ...
with the France.
The 2002–03 season started off well for Di Tommaso, scoring the first goal of his career in an away match against
Bordeaux
Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefect ...
, the 1–1 equaliser on 6 October 2002 in a match that ended in a 2–2 draw. The season quickly turned into a relegation battle which Sedans did not win, ending in nineteenth place of the Ligue 1 table and suffering relegation. In Ligue 2, Di Tommaso maintained his position as a regular starter, appearing in 26 games and receiving one direct red card in a match against Chamois Niortais. He scored the second goal of his career against
Amiens
Amiens (English: or ; ; pcd, Anmien, or ) is a city and commune in northern France, located north of Paris and south-west of Lille. It is the capital of the Somme department in the region of Hauts-de-France. In 2021, the population of ...
on 27 March 2004 in a match with three red cards. At the end of the season, Di Tommaso left the club after helping them to fifth place in the table.
Utrecht
In 2004, Di Tommaso joined Dutch
Eredivisie
The Eredivisie (; ''"Honour Division"'' or ''"Premier Division"'') is the highest level of professional football in the Netherlands. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start of professional football in the Netherlands. It is c ...
club FC Utrecht, where he was seen as a successor to Patrick Zwaanswijk who had moved to Japanese club Ōita Trinita. Di Tommaso immediately featured in the starting lineup, making 31 appearances in the 2004–05 season. Di Tommaso also started regularly during the 2005–06 season after having been named Player of the Year by the supporters in his first season.
His last match was on 27 November 2005, a 1–0 win over
Ajax
Ajax may refer to:
Greek mythology and tragedy
* Ajax the Great, a Greek mythological hero, son of King Telamon and Periboea
* Ajax the Lesser, a Greek mythological hero, son of Oileus, the king of Locris
* ''Ajax'' (play), by the ancient Gree ...
, one of Utrecht's main rivals.
Death
On 29 November 2005, Di Tommaso died in his sleep in his home in
De Meern
De Meern () is an urbanized village in the Dutch province of Utrecht. It is a part of the municipality of Utrecht, and is located at 6 km west of the inner city of this town. Before 2001 the villages De Meern, Vleuten and Haarzuilens formed a ...
, Netherlands, proven to be caused by
cardiac arrest
Cardiac arrest is when the heart suddenly and unexpectedly stops beating. It is a medical emergency that, without immediate medical intervention, will result in sudden cardiac death within minutes. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and poss ...
determined from an autopsy conducted two days later. He is survived by his wife and son.
Legacy
On 1 December 2005, a meeting of supporters at Stadion Galgenwaard was held, to honour Di Tommaso (DiTo in short). At least 14,000 fans attended. Among the speakers were chairman Jan Willem van Dop, coach Foeke Booy and captain Jean-Paul de Jong. Besides Di Tommaso's relatives and FC Utrecht's main squad, all of the clubs' youth teams were among the visitors. They were told that number 4, the number worn by Di Tommaso, would be forever retired from use. Sedan, Di Tommaso's former club, had already announced that number 29, the number Di Tommaso wore when he played for the club, would be retired.
In the first league match of FC Utrecht after his death, on 11 December against FC Groningen, Di Tommaso was again remembered. Most of the people present in the stadium, including the accompanying away supporters of Groningen, wore black clothing that day. The game started with a
moment of silence
A moment of silence (also referred to as a minute's silence or a one-minute silence) is a period of silent contemplation, prayer, reflection, or meditation. Similar to flying a flag at half-mast, a moment of silence is often a gesture of ...
.
On 23 March 2007, the ''David di Tommaso Memorial Match'' was played in Stadion Galgenwaard, where Utrecht took on French club AS Monaco. The net proceeds from the competition went to the relatives of Di Tommaso. Monaco also contributed, as
Gaël Givet
Gaël Givet-Viaros (born 9 October 1981), known as Gaël Givet, is a French former professional footballer who played as a left-footed centre back and as a left-back. Givet was a UEFA Champions League runner-up with Monaco in 2004 and was part of ...
collected football shirts from players such as Fabien Barthez,
Samuel Eto'o
Samuel Eto'o Fils (; born 10 March 1981) is a Cameroonian football administrator and former player who is the current president of the Cameroonian Football Federation from 11 December 2021. In his prime, Eto'o was regarded by pundits as one of ...
and
Alessandro Del Piero
Alessandro Del Piero (; born 9 November 1974) is an Italian former professional footballer who mainly played as a deep-lying forward, although he was capable of playing in several offensive positions. Since 2015, he has worked as a pundit ...
, to then auction them via the club website.
On 12 May 2013, Di Tommaso was immortalised on the ''Bunnikside'' – the famous stand on Stadion Galgenwaard – with a bust above the entrance to the supporters home.
Since 2006, FC Utrecht's player of the year award is called the ''Di Tommaso Trophy'' in honour of David Di Tommaso. The trophy is voted for by the fans.
Trophée des Champions
The Trophée des Champions (, ) is a French association football trophy contested in an annual match between the champions of Ligue 1 and the winners of the Coupe de France. It is equivalent to the super cups found in many other countries.
His ...
:
2000
File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...