The players of the Saint Paul They played this Wednesday the quarterfinal match of the Brazil Cup against Atlético Mineiro, at the Morumbí stadium, with the name of the Uruguayan on the back Juan Manuel Izquierdoto pay an emotional tribute to the person who died from an arrhythmia he suffered on that same field six days ago, in a Copa Libertadores match against Nacional.
The names of Rafinha, Robert Arboleda, Lucas Moura or Jonathan Calleri did not appear on the shirt numbers of the São Paulo team; only “Izquierdo”, in honor of the Nacional defender who collapsed on August 22 in the 83rd minute of the match for the top continental club tournament.
Before the opening whistle, the players from both teams mixed in the central circle to observe a minute of silence. Immediately afterwards, all the fans, players and members of the substitute benches broke into applause in memory of the 27-year-old Uruguayan player.
Izquierdo died late on Tuesday due to “cardiorespiratory arrest” associated with an arrhythmia, which he suffered in the last minutes of the match between San Pablo and Nacional played last Thursday at the Morumbí for the round of 16 of the Libertadores.
The defender, who had entered the match in the second half, collapsed on the grass, was removed from the field in an ambulance and immediately transferred to the Israeli Albert Einstein hospital, where he was admitted in “cardiac arrest” and had to be revived with a defibrillator.
Since then, doctors kept him sedated and on mechanical ventilation in an intensive care unit, as they could not assess the neurological damage from having been without oxygen to the brain for so long.
His health condition continued to worsen on Monday with a “critical neurological condition” and on Tuesday after 9:00 p.m. he died in the company of his family and a delegation from the Montevideo club that remained with him from the beginning.
The case shocked world football and mainly Uruguay, which suspended its activities last weekend and will do so next weekend as well.
Trained at Club Atlético Cerro, Izquierdo spent most of his career in Uruguay, where he also wore the colors of Liverpool, Wanderers and Peñarol. His only adventure abroad was at Atlético San Luis in Mexico.