Football tragedies: Death on the field of play

Even as the reports of an Indian player who died after collapsing on the pitch during a district-level league match, in Bangalore on Wednesday, poured in, Firstpost remember’s others footballers who died doing what they probably loved most — playing soccer. Twenty seven year old Bangalore Mars striker, D Venkatesh, collapsed following a cardiac arrest at the Bangalore Football Stadium. With no ambulance around, his teammates hired an autorickshaw and took him to a local hospital, by which time it was too late. Venkatesh was declared dead on arrival. Vekatesh is not the first footballer to have collapsed on the football field and there have been others who preceded him. We have a look at a few who died in similar circumstances and some information nuggets. [caption id=“attachment_252791” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Marc-Vivien Foé, collapsed while playing in the 2003 FIFA Confederations Cup semi-final between his country and Colombia. Reuters”]  [/caption] • One of the first ever recorded deaths on the football field was on the death of then 26-year-old William Cropper on 13 January 1889. Cropper, who played for Staveley, suffered a ruptured bowel in a match against Grimsby Town and died the next day. • In perhaps the strangest such incident, Erik Jongbloed of DWS Amsterdam was struck by lightning during an exhibition game on 23 September 1984 . The 23-year-old was the son of Jan Jongbloed, goalkeeper of the Dutch national team in both the 1974 and 1978 FIFA World Cup Final. • On 12 August 1989, Samuel Okwaraji of Nigeria collapsed and died while playing against Angola in a World Cup Qualifier. An autopsy showed that the 24-year-old had an enlarged heart and high blood pressure. • Cameroon’s 28-year-old Marc-Vivien Foé, collapsed while playing in the 2003 FIFA Confederations Cup semi-final between his country and Colombia on 26 June 2003. He died shortly after, in hospital. An autopsy later revealed the cause of his death was hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. • Cristiano Júnior of Dempo Sports Club collided with Mohun Bagan goalkeeper Subrata Paul in the 78th minute of the Federation Cup finals while scoring his second goal, on 5 December 2004. He staggered away, then collapsed. Attempts to revive him were unsuccessful and he was dead on arrival at the Hosmat Hospital. • Twenty-two-year-old Antonio Puerta of Sevilla FC collapsed during a match against Getafe C.F. on 28 August 2007. He died later in hospital after several cardiac arrests. Autopsy revealed he had arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy.