Former Palermo soccer captain Fabrizio Miccoli made an emotional apology yesterday after being accused of insulting the murdered anti-mafia judge Giovanni Falcone.

“I ask forgiveness of the whole city of Palermo, I ask forgiveness of my family who brought me up with values and respect,” Miccoli said.

Allegations that Miccoli called Falcone “mud” came out after the player was accused of extortion.

Palermo’s anti-mafia unit served Miccoli with an official notice of investigation after wiretap evidence reportedly showed him using the son of a mafia boss to recover money owed to him by the owners of a nightclub.

La Repubblica reported that the evidence also showed that Miccoli insulted Falcone, who was killed in a huge explosion along with his wife and a bodyguard as they drove on the outskirts of Palermo in May 1992.

“I’m a footballer, not a mafioso,” Miccoli, 34, said. “I’m against all the beliefs of the mafia.

“In the last few years, I wanted not just to be the captain of Palermo, but to be available to everyone. I hung around with people who I thought would be real friends, but I was wrong.

“After what happened it’s been three days since I’ve slept, because things have come out that I don’t think and I have showed that with my actions.”