Italian Serie A side Fiorentina have announced that they would honour the new contract for their late captain Davide Astori.

The footballing world was thrown into a state of mourning after Astori was found dead in his room at the La di Moret hotel in Udine on Sunday morning just before his side’s league clash at Udinese.

The international defender was due to sign the new contract a day after tragic death.

It has emerged that his untimely death was as a result of “cardiac arrest by natural causes”.

According to the club president Andrea Della Valle, they plan to donate the money from the new contract in full to the late player’s partner Francesca and their two-year-old daughter Vittoria.

In his words, Della Valle said: “Believe me, it is hard to be here.”

“This is a huge tragedy for us. I don’t even know how to express this pain. We are all under shock.

“He was with us for four years and just think that he was due to extend his contract on Monday.

“He was due to do it earlier, but due to the snow, we had put it back and agreed we would do it on Monday.

“It was his greatest joy to be able to end his career here, because this is where it would have ended.” the Fiorentina president added.

European football’s governing body, UEFA have already confirmed that a minute’s silence will be observed in the honour of the late defender during all Champions League and Europa League games this week.

Fiorentina and his former club Cagliari have also made the collective decision to retire his No.13 jersey.

A statement from the two clubs read: “To honour the memory and ensure Davide Astori is never forgotten, Fiorentina and Cagliari have decided to join-retire the No.13 shirt.”