Nicaraguan soccer woke up in mourning this Friday after learning of the death of soccer player Felipe Eliú Gutiérrez Ampié, who was a member of Juventus FC of the Nicaraguan First League and was the victim of a traffic accident, just one day after his 19th birthday.
The young man was hit early this Friday morning by a taxi at kilometer 42 of the highway that leads from the municipality of Catarina to Diria, in southeastern Nicaragua, according to the preliminary police version.
The taxi driver, identified as 31-year-old Marvin Humberto Espinoza Ortiz, told reporters that the soccer player was lying on the road, but that he could not see him in time and ran over him.
“I was driving on the highway, when I saw a person on the boulevard with the intention of crossing the road, I slowed down, but I did not look at the boy who was on the road. It was not until I felt that I had passed over something that I stopped about 20 meters ahead,” explained the taxi driver.
The soccer player turned 19 on Thursday and in the afternoon played a First League match, in which his team, Juventus FC, defeated Chichigalpa FC 2-0, according to his club.
In a public statement, the Juventus FC Board of Directors and Coaching Staff mourned the death of their player and joined the family in grief.
The “First League regrets the death of Felipe Eliú Gutiérrez, a Juventus FC player and a valuable member of our football,” the tournament organizers said in a mourning note.
The Nicaraguan national soccer team, as well as various clubs from the First League, also expressed their sorrow for the death of the young player, who was trained at the Masaya Talent Academy (southeast).
With information from EFE.
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