Julia Ituma, 18-year-old Italian volleyball star and Nigeria international has been announced dead after falling from the window of her hotel room in Turkey.
Ituma was found dead last Thursday at her hotel in Istanbul, Turkey, following her team’s loss.
Sources say the young Volley ball star fell from the window of her sixth-floor room at the Vally Hotel which she was sharing with a fellow teammate.
The Italian consulate in Turkey has come out to say they were working closely with officials in the country and providing support to Ituma’s family.
Ituma was born in 2001 in Milan to Nigerian parents and was considered one of the most promising talents in Italian volleyball. She had started playing volleyball at the age of 11, admiring volleyball stars like Robertlandy Simon as she grew up.
This was her first season with Igor Gorgonzola Novara, having transferred from Club Italia three seasons earlier. Ituma had just finished the season with Igor where they finished fifth in the national Serie A1 league.
News About Nigeria confirmed that last year, Ituma won a gold medal at the European Championship and the European Youth Olympic Festival with the Under-19 Italian national team.
Prior to that, she had been a runner-up with the Under-18 side after their 2021 defeat to Russia.
Igor are scheduled to face Chieri Turin today, Sunday, but it assumed that the match will be postponed.
During a press briefing last year, Ituma explained how she had developed a real passion for volleyball and realised her potential to become a professional player in the sport.
‘I was looking at all the players who were there [Club Italia] – top players, and they were doing something that I too loved, and in which, according to those who understood much more than me, I could get pretty good.”
