Roberto Cazzaniga
Roberto Cazzaniga is a well-known Italian volleyball player who currently plays for the New Mater in Serie A2, the country's second most important volleyball category. However, in the last few hours, his name has gained relevance due to a false link with Brazilian model Alessandra Ambrosio, with whom he supposedly had a long-distance relationship for 15 years, causing her to lose 700,000 euros.
It all started in 2008 when his alleged friend, Manuela, a member of Crema Reina (Cazzaniga's team at the time), gave him the phone number of a woman who showed a lot of interest in the Italian. This contact called herself 'Maya' to "go unnoticed," but it was actually a way to hide her true identity.
'Maya' responded to the name of the well-known model Alessandra Ambrosio and began to seduce the athlete through social media, and then moved on to phone calls that lasted for hours. "No, we have never met, not even once. She made a thousand excuses, illness, work. And yet, I fell in love with that voice, it was one call after another. We only had contact through our cell phones, almost daily. I would call her before practicing or at night, before going to bed," said the Italian to Mediaset.
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However, in 15 years of relationship, they never managed to see each other face to face, despite Cazzaniga's insistence. The fake girlfriend claimed to have many trips due to her modeling career and constant hospitalizations for heart problems.
How did Roberto Cazzaniga lose 700,000 euros?
The volleyball player lost 700,000 euros (which he didn't have) without realizing it. He explains that at first, she didn't make strange requests. The first time was to pay off a debt with his credit card, but as time went by, the woman's demands became stronger. This fact left the player bankrupt.
"How did she take all that money from me? I don't even know for sure, it was a thousand euros here, two thousand there... In the end, we reached a total of 700 thousand. Now that this nightmare is over, it's like I woke up from a coma that made me lose three decades of my life," he told Corriere della Sera newspaper.
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The end of the relationship
The teammates of Cazzaniga got in touch with journalist Danilo Rinaldi to locate Manuela, who was the bridge for 'Maya' to communicate with the unfortunate athlete and thus find out the whereabouts of the person posing as Alessandra Ambrosio.
After a while, the identity of 'Maya' was discovered: she was a woman over 50 years old named Valeria who lives in Sardinia. When Roberto found out about everything, he expressed great sadness over the deception, and his colleagues at New Mater supported him by raising 60 thousand euros to partially cover his debts.
"He is a fragile man and a victim who must be respected. We should not pity or make fun of him: this is a story that could happen to others too because we all have weaknesses," said coach Gianpaolo Montali, describing the protagonist as very generous with everyone.