Valentina Baldini, daughter of Italy interim coach Silvio Baldini, dies at 30 after lifelong battle with spastic tetraparesis
Valentina Baldini, the 30-year-old daughter of Italy's interim national football coach Silvio Baldini, has died. She lived with severe spastic tetraparesis from birth and built a career as a psychiatrist and neuroscience researcher.
Death announced by Perugia Calcio
Valentina Baldini, the firstborn daughter of Italy Under-21 and interim senior national team coach Silvio Baldini, died on 17 July 2026. Most sources report her age as 30, though Rai news described her as 38. The news was confirmed by a statement from Perugia Calcio, the Serie B club Baldini once managed. The club expressed "heartfelt condolences and closeness" to Baldini, his wife Paola, and the entire family.
A life defined by resilience and achievement
Valentina was born 20 days late and with a severe form of spastic tetraparesis, a condition that left her unable to walk or speak. Doctors had given her only months to live; only in adulthood was it discovered that she was missing a chromosome. Despite the prognosis, she survived three decades and built a professional life. She earned a medical degree, specialized in psychiatry at Bologna's Policlinico Sant'Orsola-Malpighi from 2020 to 2025, and completed a PhD in Neuroscience at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia between 2022 and 2025. She worked as a research assistant at the University of Bologna and published numerous scientific papers in international journals. She also served as president of the Association of the Register of Patients with Neuromuscular Diseases and of Asamisi, leading research and advocacy initiatives. For her commitment to psycho-physical health, she was named a Cavaliere of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic.
- Born with severe spastic tetraparesis; doctors predicted a short life.
- Specialization in psychiatry at Policlinico Sant'Orsola-Malpighi, Bologna.
- PhD in Neuroscience at University of Modena and Reggio Emilia.
- Named Cavaliere dell'Ordine al merito della Repubblica italiana for health advocacy.
- Died at age 30 (one report says 38).
Silvio Baldini's words on his daughter
Silvio Baldini, 67, has often spoken publicly about the central role Valentina played in his life. In his 2022 autobiography "Il calcio vincente. O vinco o imparo," he wrote that she was "a 4-year-old child in a woman's body" and that doctors had always warned she would not live long. He and his wife kept her in their bedroom at night, he said, because "the thought of getting up and finding her dead distressed me."
Valentina taught me to love without expecting anything in return. She made me understand what it means to love unconditionally, just as my wife made me understand what it means to build a family.
In a later interview, he said: "I want her like this, she is fine like this, I look at her with the same eyes with which I look at my players." Baldini, who led the senior national team in friendly wins over Luxembourg and Greece after Italy failed to qualify for the World Cup, has two other children with Paola: Mattia, who works on his father's technical staff, and Niccolò. He has described Valentina as the emotional and spiritual engine of his life, a guide who taught him to put human values above football results.
Football world mourns
The Italian football community reacted swiftly. FIGC president Giovanni Malagò wrote on X that "all of Italian football embraces Silvio Baldini with affection" and described him as "a splendid person, even before being a good coach, capable of transforming pain into joy, suffering into testimony." Torino FC, Pescara, and Perugia all issued statements of condolence. The Perugia note, which first made the death public, said the club "gathers around the coach, his wife Paola and the Baldini family in this moment of sorrow."
