Juan Izquierdo collapsed in a recreation and died 5 days later. That is his legacy

The demise of Juan Manuel Izquierdo has left Nacional de Montevideo, and the entire of Uruguay, in a deep sense of despair.

He died on August 27 on the age of 27, 5 days after collapsing on the pitch throughout Nacional’s Copa Libertadores spherical of 16 match towards the Brazilian membership Sao Paulo. Every week after his tragic passing, these closest to Izquierdo seek for solutions, hoping to make sense of the mindless. 

“My coronary heart is torn, it’s bleeding,” his spouse Selena wrote on social media. Izquierdo leaves behind two kids, the youngest of whom was solely two weeks outdated when he died.

“I couldn’t return to the pitch for coaching. I didn’t have the power to do it,” mentioned his Nacional team-mate Diego Polenta within the days that adopted. 

Then, on Sunday, his membership Nacional performed towards the staff he had left to hitch them, Liverpool de Futbol Membership. The gamers from either side walked on to Nacional’s Estadio Gran Parque Central pitch sporting shirts that featured Izquierdo’s image and the badges of each golf equipment.

There was a second of silence because the gamers shook fingers. It was eerily quiet. The chanting had stopped. The drums fell silent. When the cameras targeted on Polenta, the hard-nosed defender was visibly emotional. It was clear how troublesome a second it was for him and his teammates.

The referee stopped the match within the third minute to honor Izquierdo, who wore the No 3 shirt for Nacional on the time of his demise. The sellout crowd rose to its toes to applaud a participant who can be remembered for his combating spirit. Nacional received the match 1-0 from a aim within the forty third minute by their striker Nicolas Lopez. The 30-year-old celebrated emphatically earlier than elevating his arms in direction of the sky.

The win was a momentary distraction from the trauma endured 18 days beforehand in Brazil.

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On August 22, throughout a stoppage of play within the 84th minute of a intently contested match towards Sao Paulo, Izquierdo started to stumble in direction of his proper. His teammate, Nacional right-back Leandro Lozano, was instantly alarmed and started to gesture in direction of the benches. As Izquierdo fell to the bottom, Lozano’s panic intensified. 

One other Nacional participant, defender Nicolas Rodriguez, positioned a small bundle of smelling salt close to Izquierdo’s nostril, however the participant didn’t reply. Gamers from each groups motioned frantically in direction of the stadium paramedics to enter the pitch and attend to Izquierdo. 

The large Estádio do Morumbi, one of many largest stadiums in South America, which might maintain almost 67,000, fell silent. Nacional and Sao Paulo gamers clutched their heads in a panic. The ambulance darted in direction of the middle circle, the place Izquierdo lay immobile. He was positioned contained in the ambulance two minutes later and was instantly taken to the Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein in Sao Paulo. 

Sao Paulo’s middle ahead, the Argentine Jonathan Calleri, arrived on the hospital later that night. He supplied to pay for all of Izquierdo’s medical bills, handing his bank card to a Nacional staff official. Izquierdo died 5 days later, on the evening of the twenty seventh. A press release from the hospital mentioned Izquierdo had died on account of cardiac arrest associated to a coronary heart arrhythmia.

After Izquierdo’s demise, soccer in Uruguay got here to a jarring halt. All matches in Uruguay’s prime division have been postponed for per week because the nation grappled with the demise of a beloved teammate, son and father. As the times handed, the sorrow intensified. Izquierdo and his spouse Selena had welcomed their second baby two weeks earlier than his sudden demise. 

In a sequence of Instagram posts hours after his passing, Selena described the feelings that engulfed her after dropping her husband. “I ask God to provide me the power to proceed standing. At the moment was the worst day of my life.” 

From Izquierdo’s official account, she wrote: “At the moment I needed to say goodbye to my different half, the love of my life. He was Juan Izquierdo to many. He was Juanma to me. My finest buddy. My husband. The daddy of my kids. Part of me left with you right now. You have been an amazing individual, noble, loving and with out dangerous intentions. You have been an angel on Earth and also you’ll be an angel in heaven. I have to discover power and go on for our youngsters. 

“I do know you fought till the tip and that each one you needed was to be with us. I’m going to overlook you my whole life and I do know your absence can be painful each step of the best way. You had a lot extra to reside, my Juanma. I dream in regards to the day once we’re reunited and I see that smile of yours once more… I’ll love you perpetually, warrior. This time we needed to lose.” 

On August 29, Nacional held a public wake at their coaching floor and welcomed tons of of followers and passersby all through the day. The hallways the place Izquierdo bantered with teammates and workers members had turn out to be a spot of mourning. A supporter sporting a Peñarol jersey approached a sparse crowd that had gathered exterior the power to pay their respects. Peñarol and Nacional are the 2 greatest golf equipment in Uruguay and fierce rivals. Izquierdo had the uncommon distinction of getting performed for each golf equipment. 

After the gentleman had made his well beyond the somber crowd and in direction of a makeshift memorial, he positioned a Peñarol package among the many flowers and photographs of Izquierdo by the primary entrance to the coaching floor. The group applauded softly. The impression of Izquierdo’s demise has quickly put apart over a century of hatred between the 2 golf equipment. For Izquierdo’s teammates, returning to their every day routines felt almost inconceivable.

The Uruguayan Soccer Affiliation (AUF) declared 5 days of mourning. A few of Nacional’s gamers huddled round household in Montevideo, some organized classes with the membership’s psychologist to speak about what occurred and the way they might attempt to course of it. When Nacional’s gamers started to organize for Sunday’s fixture towards Montevideo-based Liverpool F.C., the place Izquierdo was topped league champion in 2023, the ache of their teammate’s demise got here speeding again.

“I had by no means skilled something like this earlier than. It’s clearly like dropping a member of the family,” Nacional captain Polenta instructed reporters in a press convention. “He was our teammate and we regularly spend extra time with teammates than with our personal households. We’re going to recollect Juan perpetually. To stroll into the dressing room and never see him there’s actually troublesome.” 

Polenta recalled how troublesome it was for him to step again onto Nacional’s coaching pitches. He mentioned that he was devastated and contemplated stepping away from the sport of soccer for good. “I couldn’t return to the pitch. I didn’t have the power to do it,” he mentioned. “The boys all went by the identical factor.”

Polenta has stayed near Izquierdo’s household for the reason that participant’s demise. He’s honoring his buddy by supporting the household throughout an unimaginable tragedy. 

“I do know what household meant to Juan. I understand how he felt about his kids,” mentioned Polenta. “I’m like a brother to him now. However he’s gone.”

Luis Suarez, Uruguay’s greatest-ever goalscorer, final week introduced his retirement from worldwide soccer. The week earlier than, he scored a brace throughout Inter Miami’s 2-0 win over FC Cincinnati and after a well-taken first aim, he lifted his pink Miami package to disclose a message for Izquierdo. “Fuerza Juan” (Power for Juan) was written throughout his undershirt as Izquierdo fought for his life in Sao Paulo.

Suarez opened his retirement announcement by sending condolences to Izquierdo’s household, choking up as he mentioned, “Could he relaxation in peace.”

Sao Paulo gamers Calleri, Giuliano Galoppo, Michel Araujo, Welington and their captain Rafinha, previously of Bayern Munich, chartered a non-public jet and traveled to Montevideo to attend the wake. For unhappy causes, Sao Paulo will now perpetually be linked to Nacional.

“It’s a really troublesome second. I’m confused,” Rafinha instructed reporters exterior Nacional’s headquarters. “We needed to be right here as a result of we skilled what occurred. It occurred in our home, in our stadium, and we felt it as if it have been our household.” 

In Brazil, Izquierdo’s demise has shaken the nation. Moments of silence have been held all through Brazil as their soccer season resumed uninterrupted. When Sao Paulo confronted Atlético Mineiro on August 28 for the Copa do Brasil, Sao Paulo wore kits with the Uruguayan’s surname on the again. However, the lingering reminiscence of Izquierdo mendacity helpless on the Morumbi pitch, and the heartbreak that his younger household will endure, has not been simply forgotten. 

“He had a daughter and a new child child,” mentioned Coritiba head coach Jorginho throughout his weekly press convention a day after Izquierdo’s demise. “I’m a grandfather. I can’t think about dropping a toddler,” he added, earlier than breaking down in tears. Response from world wide of soccer was seen all through social media, from groups and gamers throughout the globe. Izquierdo’s story, one in all perseverance and a pure love for the sport, had proven the world that soccer can nonetheless be pure. 

As a 17-year-old, Izquierdo participated in a authorities program that supplied underprivileged kids with skilled soccer alternatives. His mom Sandra was a housemaid. His father Nelson was a building employee. They raised Izquierdo within the modest Nuevo Paris neighborhood of Montevideo. That’s the place his ardour for soccer was born, however Izquierdo’s path to Uruguay’s first division was something however linear. 

“My childhood was me with a ball all day. I didn’t have a cellphone. We didn’t have these luxuries,” Izquierdo instructed El Pais in Uruguay final 12 months. “I had the whole lot I wanted. My father all the time had a job and my mom took care of us. I didn’t stroll round with holes in my sneakers.”

He joined Liverpool’s academy however needed to divide his time between coaching and dealing in building alongside his father. That dedication exterior of soccer relegated him to the bench at youth stage. His father inspired him to deal with soccer however Izquierdo didn’t thoughts spending time with him as a laborer. “I simply needed to maintain him firm and discuss life,” mentioned Izquierdo. He debuted with Cerro in 2018 and after 32 video games was signed by Peñarol, a large in Uruguay. It was a swift rise for Izquierdo, though he later grew to become a journeyman participant, even enjoying briefly in Mexico for Atletico San Luis.

“I do the whole lot for my household,” Izquierdo mentioned.

Soccer is rallying around the household he leaves behind. The president of the AUF, Ignacio Alonso, instructed reporters final week that they’ll pay Izquierdo’s household the equal of his Nacional wage for the following eight years.

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Throughout a current interview with Brazilian outlet Globo, Izquierdo’s mom Sandra recalled the evening her son died. “He didn’t come house,” she mentioned with a pained look on her face. The house she referred to was constructed brick by brick by Izquierdo and his father. “(Juan) carried luggage of sand, bricks. He was exhausted from coaching however he’d eat, sleep after which come right here to assist us construct the home.”

Juan Izquierdo is remembered as a warrior, a participant who embodied the combating spirit that has outlined Uruguayan soccer for many years. His tragic demise has been a reminder, although, about how fragile life will be. Seven months in the past, Izquierdo instructed Nacional’s video staff that the aspect who received a primary division title in 2022, led by an impressed Luis Suarez, was like a household to him.

“They’ll all the time be in my coronary heart,” Izquierdo mentioned.

(Pictures: Guillermo Legaria/Anadolu by way of Getty Pictures/Ernesto Ryan/Getty Pictures/DANTE FERNANDEZ/AFP/Design: Eamonn Dalton)