Spanish soccer player dies today at 22

[Icy]

The young Spanish player Antonio Puerta died today after being 3 days in the hospital.

It all started past Saturday. He was playing in the first season game when after a run, he felt to the grass suffering a heart attack. His team mates and team doctors ran towards him and managed to recover him thinking it was just a seizure. Then he walked to the medical room and once inside, he had another stroke. The meds managed to recover him again and he was moved to the hospital. He suffered 3 more strokes in the ambulance and later in the hospital. Again the doctors managed to recover his life, but his brain was heavily damaged already and he died today at 22 years old.

Antonio Puerta was one of the biggest promises in Spanish and European soccer. He was the starting wingback in Sevilla 1st division team and also recently in the Spanish national team. Life looked great for him until now, climbing to the top of the soccer world with a huge new contract signed, being called to the national team and expecting a baby as his couple is pregnant.

It seems that he had genetic illness in his heart that nobody noticed until now, even being a pro athlete. The meds said that is a rare illness that can be only detected by a heart magnetic resonance that is not something you perform one somebody unless he had problems before, that was not the case on Puerta.

R.I.P Antonio Puerta, this is a huge lost for his family, friends and the soccer world

[bulletsponge]

thats sad ;(

[DaddyTorgo]

wow. that's shocking. and horrible.

makes you really realize that you should live each day like it's your last...no regrets

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

wow. that's shocking. and horrible.

makes you really realize that you should live each day like it's your last...no regrets

what he said...

FM

[SirFozzie]

holy shit, I was just watching that game on GolTV last night and saw him collapse

[MrBug708]

[Ajaxab]

It's always a tragedy when those who are thought to be the healthiest in society suddenly pass away like this. Sad news indeed.

[Ryan S]

Just noticed this at the BBC website.

Nottingham Forest's Carling Cup tie at home to Leicester was abandoned at half-time after Foxes defender Clive Clarke collapsed in the dressing room.

Paramedics rushed down the tunnel to attend to the 27-year-old shortly after the half-time whistle.

"Clive was very seriously ill," said Leicester chief executive Tim Davies.
"He was taken away in an ambulance to hospital. He did offer a few words in the ambulance. Our thoughts and prayers are with Clive and his family."

[daedalus]

that's sad. RIP.

from an outsider's perspective who knows very little about spanish football, sevilla seems like a very close-knit organization/club with great support from their fans. this must haveve been hard for them -- even ignoring puerta's talent as a football player.

[EagleFan]

Very sad indeed.

This was genetic? Does that mean he had a family history of this? I would think that would have been cause to have the test done previously.

Sorry, not trying to cast blame or anything. Just curious about what he had and if there was a known family history.