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Football is and always has been ‘the beautiful game,’ but sometimes there are incidents that cast a shadow over it and bring into sharp focus that it is still just a game after all. Mercifully, though it doesn’t happen often as there have been cases where players have either died on the pitch whilst playing that game that they love, or in hospital shortly afterwards.
It’s something incomprehensible, given that it occurs in those so young, and to bear witness to something so tragic is both shocking and numbing. Often, and for obvious reasons, such occurrences are kept out of the news, but on occasions, such tragedy has befallen those players in top flight football.
Here are five footballers who lost their lives while playing the game they loved.
#1 Miklos Feher (Age 24): Benfica v Vitoria, January 24, 2004
A game that was being broadcast live on Portuguese television had, for the most part, been a decent, competitive encounter and Feher had come on looking to help Benfica break the deadlock in what had been, until his introduction, a goalless match.
The Hungarian had proved his worth by providing the game-winning assist, but deep into injury-time, he decided to waste a few seconds, something for which he was handed a yellow card by the official.
TV footage shows Feher wryly smiling at the referee before crouching forward, hands on his thighs. Falling backwards with no players near him, he was gone before lying prone on the turf.
Though an ambulance would come onto the pitch and rush him to the hospital, sadly it was a journey made in vain, and his death was announced some three hours later. In tribute to the player, Benfica retired his No.29 shirt.
#2 Patrick Ekeng (Age 26): Dinamo Bucharest v FC Viitorul Constanta, May 6, 2016
Just seven minutes after coming onto the pitch as a sub for Dinamo Bucharest, Patrick Ekeng collapsed in the middle of the pitch and took his last breath.
With no prior history of heart problems of defects of any kind, it came as a great shock to the football family. Even though it would be a couple of hours before his death was confirmed in the hospital, he never regained consciousness and medics were unable to revive him on the pitch, players from both teams crying and holding their heads in disbelief.
The youngster had recently broken into the Cameroon international squad and was tipped for big things, dream and aspirations that were cruelly denied him.
He had, in fact, told his best friend earlier in the day that he didn’t want to play in the evening game because of a feeling of extreme fatigue. Though it wouldn’t have helped, an investigation into his death concluded that the ambulance which took him to the hospital had faulty equipment and out of date medicine on board.
#3 Phil O’Donnell (Age 35): Motherwell v Dundee United, December 29, 2007
When most people would’ve been getting ready to celebrate the New Year and all that it would bring, Phil O’Donnell’s young family had to contemplate life without him.
Motherwell’s captain and leader, admired and respected by everyone, collapsed as he was being substituted during his team’s 5-3 win over Dundee United.
It was immediately apparent to all concerned that there was a problem, O’Donnell still extremely fit and healthy despite his advancing years. Five minutes were spent trying to revive him on the pitch before he was taken off to the hospital.
Unfortunately, he never made it and died in the ambulance on the way, the cause of his death later being confirmed as a left ventricular failure. His passing cast a huge shadow over the club and though they managed to make it through the season, his manager and former teammates would later admit that the football was incidental.
#4 Antonio Puerta (Age 22): Sevilla v Getafe, August 28, 2007
A true one-club man, Antonio Puerta had spent 14 years of his 22 at the club of his life, Sevilla. Born in Seville, he was scouted as a seven-year-old and joined an academy that could count Jesus Navas and Jose Antonio Reyes amongst its pupils.
Though he made a first-team debut in 2004, it wasn’t until 2005/06 that he was promoted to be part of the first-team squad. How unfortunate that within two years, he would cease to be with us.
On August 25th, 2007, Puerta collapsed in the penalty area in the 35th minute of Sevilla’s game against Getafe at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan and lost consciousness. Though he managed to eventually walk off of the pitch aided by club staff, he collapsed again in the dressing room.
He managed to hold onto life for a further three days but multiple cardiac arrests in the intervening period took its toll and he never regained consciousness, dying in hospital on August 28, 2007, from arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia.
His wife was seven months pregnant with the couple’s first child when he passed.
#5 Marc-Vivien Foe (Age 28): Cameroon v Colombia, June 23, 2003
The pictures of the giant midfield machine that was Marc-Vivien Foe lying prone on the turf in the 2003 Confederations Cup semi-final is one that will haunt football fans forever.
Foe was as dynamic a midfield general as it was possible to be. A rampaging colossus of a man, which is why his death is particularly hard to understand.
Manchester United were close to signing him years before, hinting at how well thought of he was in the game, but it would be West Ham United that would propel him into the English national consciousness with manager Harry Redknapp playing him alongside the likes of Paolo di Canio and a young Frank Lampard.
He would move back to France and play for Lyon before finally ending up at Manchester City.
Cameroon looked odds on to be a real contender for the Confederations Cup trophy before tragedy befell them. It was the 72nd minute that Foe collapsed in the centre-circle with no players near him. Though he was still alive when being taken from the field, attempts at resuscitation failed and he died at Stade Gerland’s medical centre some 45 minutes later.
His manager, Winfried Schafer, had wanted to substitute him as he felt Foe looked lethargic, but the player had indicated he was fine to continue. His widow, Marie-Louise, would also note how he had stomach pains and dysentery before the game, but Foe had been adamant that he wanted to play because the venue was in Lyon, a place close to his heart.
Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy was given as the cause of death.
