Milan: A 71-year-old man who spent 11 years living rough after getting lost following an Inter Milan v FC Basel Champions League game, has returned to his native Switzerland, reports said Tuesday.
Rudolf Bantle was 60 years old when he travelled with friends to Milan in August 2004 to watch Basel take on Inter in a Champions League qualifier.
After Inter stretched their lead to 4-1 and with five minutes remaining, Bantle went to the toilet -- a decision that was to have drastic consequences and change his life forever.
Upon returning, he failed to find his travelling companions. With only 20 euros in his pocket and no mobile phone, Bantle was left stranded in Milan, where he spent the next 11 years living on the streets and getting by thanks to the kindness of locals.
He was listed as a missing person by Swiss police in 2004 and with no information as to Bantle's whereabouts, the case was shelved definitely in 2011.
According to Swiss newspaper Schweiz am Sonntag, whose report was carried by Italian sports daily Gazzetta dello Sport on Tuesday, Bantle is now living in a pensioner's home in his native Basel.
But for the locals who helped Bantle in Milan's Baggio neighbourhood, the news has come as something of a surprise.
"Is it true? I didn't hear anything about him, I really thought he had died," said Sergio Mazzarelli, a librarian who like many locals got to know "the nice Swiss guy with the German accent" over the years.
In true 'tifoso' (fan) style, after FC Basel's defeat Bantle went on to support the Nerazzurri's local rivals, AC Milan, whom he followed on the television at local betting shops.
The local students who came to know Bantle and helped him with spare change and clothes even gifted him a Milan shirt with the name of Rossoneri great Kaka on the back.
AFP
