{"id":750679,"date":"2026-06-21T11:04:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T11:04:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/750679\/"},"modified":"2026-06-21T11:04:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T11:04:15","slug":"cesare-liberatore-beautiful-teen-killed-on-way-home-from-socceroos-match","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/750679\/","title":{"rendered":"Cesare Liberatore: \u2018Beautiful\u2019 teen killed on way home from Socceroos match"},"content":{"rendered":"

An 18-year-old man killed in a car crash<\/a> in Melbourne<\/a> was a football fan on the way home from watching the Socceroos<\/a>\u2032 World Cup match against the USA at a live site.<\/p>\n

Tullamarine\u00a0man Cesare Liberatore was on his way home from watching the match on the big screen at Federation Square on Saturday morning.<\/p>\n

\"Tullamarine\u00a0man<\/p>\n

Tullamarine\u00a0man Cesare Liberatore, 18, was killed on his way home from watching the Socceroos match on the big screen at Federation Square on Saturday morning in Melbourne.\u00a0GoFundMe<\/p>\n

His loved ones are pleading with young drivers to take extra care on the road, as two of his mates, identified in an online fundraiser as Oscar and Julian fight for life in hospital.<\/p>\n

Cesare was a passenger in a Mitsubishi Triton ute driven by a friend, who is a P-plater.<\/p>\n

Police say it crossed onto the wrong side of the road and veered into two oncoming cars at Attwood<\/a> in the city\u2019s north-west about 7am.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The 18-year-old P-plater driver lost control of the ute on a downhill stretch of Mickleham Road around 7am.\u00a09News<\/p>\n

The driver, 18, and another passenger, 17, are fighting for life.<\/p>\n

Cesare died in hospital surrounded by his family.<\/p>\n

His father, Zaar, told 9News his son was \u201ca good kid … a real mate\u201d.<\/p>\n

Grandmother Mary Liberatore described him as, \u201cIncredibly beautiful, an incredibly beautiful baby and young man\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The ute was T-boned by two oncoming cars after it drifted onto the wrong side in Melbourne.\u00a09News<\/p>\n

\u201cTo know that I\u2019ll never have him wrap his arms around me again and say, hey Nan, how are you, you know,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was beautiful. I loved him dearly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zaar said his son had been messaging him a few hours before he died, but he wasn\u2019t awake.<\/p>\n

He wishes he had gone with his son to watch the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was messaging me from Fed Square. I hadn\u2019t gotten up yet. He was messaging me at 4am. I had my alarm set for 4.30am,\u201d Zaar said.<\/p>\n

The family said he had just celebrated his 18th birthday this month.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone loved him, and he always wanted people to laugh,\u201d his mother Simonetta told\u00a0The Age<\/a>.<\/p>\n

An online fundraiser has been set up for the driver and the other passenger, identified as Oscar and Julian.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnyone who knows Oscar and Julian knows the kind, genuine people they are,\u201d the fundraiser reads.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have touched the lives of so many, and now it\u2019s our turn to show them the same care and support.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Tullamarine\u00a0man<\/p>\n

Liberatore died in hospital surrounded by his family after the crash.\u00a0GoFundMe<\/p>\n

\"Cesare<\/p>\n

Cesare Liberatore’s grandmother Mary said she would miss her grandson who was killed in the Melbourne crash.\u00a0Nine<\/p>\n

The drivers of the other two vehicles, a man in his 50s and a man in his 20s, were taken to hospital with minor injuries.<\/p>\n

A small roadside tribute has been left at the scene of the fatal crash.<\/p>\n

As police continue to piece together what went wrong, Cesare\u2019s family say they\u2019re speaking in the hope it can help others avoid the heartbreak they\u2019ve been forced to face.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An 18-year-old man killed in a car crash in Melbourne was a football fan on the way home…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":750680,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-750679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=750679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750679\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/750680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=750679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=750679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=750679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}