The dying of Juan Manuel Izquierdo has left Nacional de Montevideo, and the entire of Uruguay, in a deep sense of depression.
He died on August 27 on the date of 27, 5 days later collapsing at the tone throughout Nacional’s Copa Libertadores spherical of 16 fit in opposition to the Brazilian membership Sao Paulo. A occasion later his catastrophic passing, the ones closest to Izquierdo seek for solutions, hoping to produce sense of the mindless.
“My heart is torn, it’s bleeding,” his spouse Selena wrote on social media. Izquierdo leaves in the back of two youngsters, the youngest of whom used to be most effective two weeks ancient when he died.
“I couldn’t return to the pitch for training. I didn’t have the strength to do it,” mentioned his Nacional team-mate Diego Polenta within the days that adopted.
After, on Sunday, his membership Nacional performed in opposition to the group he had left to tied them, Liverpool de Futbol Membership. The avid gamers from each side walked directly to Nacional’s Estadio Gran Parque Central tone dressed in shirts that featured Izquierdo’s image and the badges of each golf equipment.
There used to be a life of quiet because the avid gamers shook arms. It used to be eerily calm. The chanting had blocked. The drums fell quiet. When the cameras enthusiastic about Polenta, the hard-nosed defender used to be visibly emotional. It used to be sunlit how tricky a life it used to be for him and his teammates.
The referee blocked the fit within the 3rd negligible to honor Izquierdo, who wore the Refuse 3 blouse for Nacional on the year of his dying. The sellout population rose to its ft to applaud a participant who will probably be remembered for his combating spirit. Nacional gained the fit 1-0 from a function within the forty third negligible by means of their striker Nicolas Lopez. The 30-year-old celebrated emphatically ahead of elevating his hands against the sky.
The win used to be a short-term distraction from the injury persevered 18 days previously in Brazil.
On August 22, throughout a stoppage of play games within the 84th negligible of a carefully contested fit in opposition to Sao Paulo, Izquierdo started to stumble against his accurate. His teammate, the Nacional right-back Leandro Lozano, used to be instantly alarmed and started to formality against the benches. As Izquierdo fell to the field, Lozano’s panic intensified.
Some other Nacional participant, defender Nicolas Rodriguez, positioned a little bundle of smelling salt akin Izquierdo’s nostril, however the participant didn’t reply. Gamers from each groups motioned frantically against the stadium paramedics to go into the tone and handle Izquierdo.
The immense Estádio do Morumbi, some of the biggest stadiums in South The us, which is able to store just about 67,000, fell quiet. Nacional and Sao Paulo avid gamers clutched their heads in a panic. The ambulance darted against the middle circle, the place Izquierdo lay immobile. He used to be positioned throughout the ambulance two mins next and used to be instantly taken to the Health center Israelita Albert Einstein in Sao Paulo.
Sao Paulo’s middle ahead, the Argentine Jonathan Calleri, arrived on the health center next that night time. He presented to pay for all of Izquierdo’s clinical bills, handing his bank card to a Nacional group reliable. Izquierdo died 5 days next, at the evening of the twenty seventh. A observation from the health center mentioned Izquierdo had died because of cardiac arrest similar to a center arrhythmia.
(Miguel SCHINCARIOL / AFP)
Nearest Izquierdo’s dying, soccer in Uruguay got here to a jarring halt. All fits in Uruguay’s govern section had been suspension for a occasion because the community grappled with the dying of a liked teammate, son and father. As the times handed, the disaster intensified. Izquierdo and his spouse Selena had welcomed their 2nd kid two weeks ahead of his surprising dying.
In a form of Instagram posts hours later his passing, Selena described the sentiments that engulfed her later shedding her husband. “I ask God to give me the strength to continue standing. Today was the worst day of my life.”
From Izquierdo’s reliable account, she wrote: “Today I had to say goodbye to my other half, the love of my life. He was Juan Izquierdo to many. He was Juanma to me. My best friend. My husband. The father of my children. A part of me left with you today. You were a great person, noble, loving and without bad intentions. You were an angel on Earth and you’ll be an angel in heaven. I must find strength and go on for our children.
“I know you fought until the end and that all you wanted was to be with us. I’m going to miss you my entire life and I know your absence will be painful every step of the way. You had so much more to live, my Juanma. I dream about the day when we’re reunited and I see that smile of yours again… I’ll love you forever, warrior. This time we had to lose.”
On August 29, Nacional held a crowd wake at their coaching field and welcomed masses of lovers and passersby all the way through the generation. The hallways the place Izquierdo bantered with teammates and team of workers contributors had change into a playground of mourning. A supporter dressed in a Peñarol jersey approached a sparse population that had accumulated outdoor the ability to pay their appreciates. Peñarol and Nacional are the 2 largest golf equipment in Uruguay and fierce competitors. Izquierdo had the uncommon difference of getting performed for each golf equipment.
(Ernesto Ryan/Getty Pictures/Nicolas Celaya/Xinhua by way of Getty Pictures)
Nearest the gentleman had made his approach day the somber population and against a makeshift memorial, he positioned a Peñarol equipment a few of the plant life and pictures of Izquierdo by means of the primary front to the educational field. The population applauded softly. The affect of Izquierdo’s dying has quickly set aside over a century of hatred between the 2 golf equipment. For Izquierdo’s teammates, going back on their day by day routines felt just about not possible.
The Uruguayan Soccer Affiliation (AUF) declared 5 days of mourning. A few of Nacional’s avid gamers huddled round people in Montevideo, some organized periods with the membership’s psychologist to discuss what came about and the way they might aim to procedure it. When Nacional’s avid gamers started to organize for Sunday’s fixture in opposition to Montevideo-based Liverpool F.C., the place Izquierdo used to be topped league champion in 2023, the ache in their teammate’s dying got here dashing again.
“I had never experienced anything like this before. It’s obviously like losing a family member,” Nacional captain Polenta advised newshounds in a press convention. “He was our teammate and we often spend more time with teammates than with our own families. We’re going to remember Juan forever. To walk into the dressing room and not see him there is really difficult.”
(Guillermo Legaria/Anadolu by way of Getty Pictures)
Polenta recalled how tricky it used to be for him to step again onto Nacional’s coaching pitches. He mentioned that he used to be devastated and contemplated stepping clear of the sport of soccer for just right. “I couldn’t return to the pitch. I didn’t have the strength to do it,” he mentioned. “The boys all went through the same thing.”
Polenta has stayed alike to Izquierdo’s people for the reason that participant’s dying. He’s honoring his buddy by means of supporting the people throughout an impossible tragedy.
“I know what family meant to Juan. I know how he felt about his children,” mentioned Polenta. “I’m like a brother to him now. But he’s gone.”
Luis Suarez, Uruguay’s greatest-ever goalscorer, terminating occasion introduced his resignation from world soccer. The occasion ahead of, he scored a brace throughout Inter Miami’s 2-0 win over FC Cincinnati and later a well-taken first function, he lifted his purple Miami equipment to show a message for Izquierdo. “Fuerza Juan” (Energy for Juan) used to be written throughout his undershirt as Izquierdo fought for his generation in Sao Paulo.
Suarez opened his resignation announcement by means of sending comforts to Izquierdo’s people, choking up as he mentioned, “May he rest in peace.”
Sao Paulo avid 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 wait the wake. For unhappy causes, Sao Paulo will now endlessly be related to Nacional.
“It’s a very difficult moment. I’m at a loss for words,” Rafinha advised newshounds outdoor Nacional’s headquarters. “We wanted to be here because we experienced what happened. It happened in our house, in our stadium, and we felt it as if it were our family.”
(DANTE FERNANDEZ / AFP/ Ernesto Ryan/Getty Pictures)
In Brazil, Izquierdo’s dying has shaken the rustic. Moments of quiet had been held all the way 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 at the again. Nonetheless, the lingering reminiscence of Izquierdo mendacity helpless at the Morumbi tone, and the unhappiness that his younger people will bear, has no longer been simply forgotten.
“He had a daughter and a newborn baby,” mentioned Coritiba head lecturer Jorginho throughout his weekly press convention a generation later Izquierdo’s dying. “I’m a grandfather. I cannot imagine losing a child,” he added, ahead of breaking unwell in tears. Response from all over the world of soccer used to be revealed all the way through social media, from groups and avid gamers around the globe. Izquierdo’s tale, one in all perseverance and a natural love for the sport, had proven the arena that soccer can nonetheless be natural.
As a 17-year-old, Izquierdo participated in a central authority program that supplied underprivileged youngsters with skilled soccer alternatives. His mom Sandra used to be a housemaid. His father Nelson used to be a development associate. They raised Izquierdo within the little Nuevo Paris community of Montevideo. That’s the place his hobby for soccer used to be born, however Izquierdo’s trail to Uruguay’s first section used to be the rest however unbending.
“My childhood was me with a ball all day. I didn’t have a cell phone. We didn’t have those luxuries,” Izquierdo told El Pais in Uruguay last year. “I had everything I needed. My father always had a job and my mother took care of us. I didn’t walk around with holes in my shoes.”
(Guillermo Legaria/Anadolu by way of Getty Pictures)
He joined Liverpool’s academy however needed to divide his year between coaching and dealing in development along his father. That loyalty outdoor of soccer relegated him to the bench at adolescence stage. His father inspired him to concentrate on soccer however Izquierdo didn’t thoughts spending year with him as a worker. “I just wanted to keep him company and talk about life,” mentioned Izquierdo. He debuted with Cerro in 2018 and later 32 video games used to be signed by means of Peñarol, a gigantic in Uruguay. It used to be a hasty stand for Izquierdo, even if he next was a journeyman participant, even taking part in in short in Mexico for Atletico San Luis.
“I do everything for my family,” Izquierdo mentioned.
Soccer is rallying around the people he leaves in the back of. The president of the AUF, Ignacio Alonso, advised newshounds terminating occasion that they’re going to pay Izquierdo’s people the identical of his Nacional wage for the later 8 years.
During a recent interview with Brazilian outlet Globo, Izquierdo’s mom Sandra recalled the evening her son died. “He didn’t come home,” she mentioned with a pained glance on her face. The house she referred to used to be constructed brick by means of brick by means of Izquierdo and his father. “(Juan) carried bags of sand, bricks. He was exhausted from training but he’d eat, sleep and then come here to help us build the house.”
(NORBERTO DUARTE / AFP/Eitan ABRAMOVICH / AFP)
Juan Izquierdo is remembered as a warrior, a participant who embodied the combating spirit that has outlined Uruguayan soccer for many years. His catastrophic dying has been a reminder, even though, about how fragile generation will also be. Seven months in the past, Izquierdo advised Nacional’s video group that the aspect who gained a primary section identify in 2022, led by means of an impressed Luis Suarez, used to be like a people to him.
“They’ll always be in my heart,” Izquierdo mentioned.
(Pictures: Guillermo Legaria/Anadolu by way of Getty Pictures/Ernesto Ryan/Getty Pictures/DANTE FERNANDEZ/AFP/Design: Eamonn Dalton)
