Football mourns the departure of Juan Izquierdo [Reactions]

The football world reacted on Tuesday to the death of Nacional de Montevideo defender Juan Izquierdo, who suffered a heart attack during the Copa Libertadores round of 16 against Sao Paulo in Brazil.

Since the announcement, made official by Nacional on its Twitter account, there have been hundreds of reactions and comments about the death of Izquierdo at the age of 27, where he had been hospitalized since last Thursday and where he suffered critical neurological damage from which he could not recover.

The first entity to comment on the death of the center was Conmebol, which took to its social networks to express its regret for the departure.

“Conmebol deeply regrets the passing of Juan Izquierdo, a footballer from Nacional de Uruguay. We extend our sincere condolences to his family and friends. May he rest in peace,” the governing body of South American football published, while its president, Alejandro Domínguez, regretted the “early departure” of the player.

Likewise, Nacional’s traditional rival, Peñarol, published a message on the same social network in which it “deeply regrets” the death of Izquierdo.

“Club Atlético Peñarol deeply regrets the death of Juan Manuel Izquierdo, former player of our institution. We express our deepest condolences and embrace his family, his friends and Club Nacional de Football in this time of great pain,” the black and gold team said.

These messages of condolence were joined by Argentine teams Boca Juniors and River Plate, Brazilian teams Sao Paulo and Fluminese, Colo Colo from Chile, Olimpia from Paraguay, Alianza Lima from Peru and Italian team Juventus, among others.

The Nacional player was admitted to the Albert Einstein hospital in the capital of São Paulo, where upon arrival he had to be resuscitated with a defibrillator after going into cardiac arrest, which caused irreversible neurological damage.

The player, who started the match on the bench and came on in the second half, collapsed after suffering an arrhythmia in the final minutes of the match between Nacional and São Paulo in the second leg of the round of 16 of the Libertadores.

He was taken from the stadium in an ambulance and immediately taken to the hospital, where he was accompanied at all times by his family and a delegation from Nacional.

Continue reading:

• Uruguayan football match suspended again due to serious injury to Juan Izquierdo
• “Cardiac arrest”: the medical report of the Uruguayan footballer who collapsed during a Copa Libertadores match
• Uruguayan footballer who collapsed in Copa Libertadores is reported to be in critical condition