Napoli football club president Aurelio De Laurentiis rescued from burning yacht

Aurelio De Laurentiis was airlifted from the boat in the Gulf of Naples on Sunday ahead of his club's Serie A match with Lazio.

Aurelio De Laurentiis was airlifted from the boat in the Gulf of Naples on Sunday ahead of his club’s Serie A match with Lazio.

It’s thought that De Laurentiis had been planning to attend the match, that his team eventually won 5-0.

The cause of the blaze is not yet known, but the football club president and the 11 other people on board were rescued from the blazing boat by helicopter.

Fabio Cannavaro, former Italy football captain, took footage of the burning yacht and posted it to his Instagram account but was not aware that the boat belonged to De Laurentiis.

As well as being president of Napoli, his native team, De Laurentiis is a prominent Italian film producer through his company Filmauro.

His work includes ‘Posti in Piedi in Paradiso’ (A Flat for Three) that won three Nastro d’Argento Awards, the oldest film awards in Europe, and grossed over 9 million euros.

‘Vacanze di Natale a Cortina’ (Christmas holidays in Cortina), produced by De Laurentiis, grossed $14,847,186 at the Italian box office following it’s release in 2011.

It’s believed that the yacht that the producer was saved from is unsalvageable.