By Miguel Rapetti
28 Aug 2024, 18:18 PM EDT
All commitments related to Uruguayan football were suspended and void until Sunday after the Uruguayan Football Association (AUF) decided to suspend all football activity in the nation following the death of Nacional de Montevideo footballer Juan Izquierdo.
In a statement, the AUF wanted to pause Uruguayan football as a sign of respect for Izquierdo, who died of a heart attack during the round of 16 of the Copa Libertadores against Sao Paulo.
“It is with great pain that we say goodbye to a beloved member of our Uruguayan football. Juan Izquierdo was an active, committed player and a person of family and friends. Appreciated and much loved by his teammates and colleagues in all the clubs where he played,” reads a statement from the governing body of Uruguayan football released on Wednesday.
The document adds that Izquierdo will be remembered as an example of “the highest values” of the country’s sport, while noting that “in the face of such a painful loss” the Executive Committee decided to suspend activities and to provide “the highest” funeral honors.
The body of footballer Juan Manuel Izquierdo will be transferred to Montevideo on a Uruguayan Air Force plane that left this Wednesday for the Brazilian city of São Paulo.
This was announced by spokespersons from the Ministry of Defense of the South American country and added that around midday a second aircraft will depart from Uruguay in which the player’s relatives who are still in Brazil will return.
Izquierdo died on Tuesday at the age of 27 in São Paulo, where he was hospitalized in an intensive care center with a critical neurological condition.
Continue reading:
- Uruguayan Air Force transfers remains of Juan Izquierdo to his country
- Juan Izquierdo joins the painful list of footballers who died in action
- Death of Juan Izquierdo: the heartbreaking letter written by one of his closest companions