Europe 1 with AFP 11:08 a.m., December 10, 2022
Grant Wahl, famous American sports journalist, died while covering the quarter-final of the World Cup between Argentina and the Netherlands.
The 48-year-old felt ill in the press box before collapsing as the match drew to a close.
According to "The Wall Street Journal", he would have succumbed to a heart attack.
A famous American sports journalist, who made headlines recently in Qatar by wearing a rainbow T-shirt in support of LGBT+ people, died covering the World Cup quarter-final between Argentina and the Netherlands. Low on Friday, organizers confirmed on Saturday.
Grant Wahl, 48, "felt ill in the press box at Lusail Stadium, a spokesman for the Supreme Organizing Committee said. He immediately received emergency medical treatment, which continued during his transfer by ambulance to Hamad General Hospital", in Doha.
Fifa President Gianni Infantino sent the "sincere condolences" of world football's governing body and the "football community" to his wife, family and friends in a separate statement on Saturday.
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Author of a book on David Beckham, the journalist had covered, among other things, eight men's World Cups consecutively, worked for the famous magazine Sports Illustrated from 1996 to 2020, before joining the CBS Sports channel in 2021. According to the American radio NPR, he collapsed in the press box as the match was coming to an end.
According to the American daily
The Wall Street Journal
, the American apparently succumbed to a heart attack.
He told subscribers to his internet newsletter a few days ago that he had visited a clinic in the media centre.
"They said I probably had bronchitis," he added.
“My body is finally giving out. Three weeks with little sleep, lots of stress and work can have that effect on you. I could feel my upper chest taking on a new level of pressure and discomfort,” he described.
"He had made football his life's work"
“I am completely in shock,” tweeted his wife, Dr. Celine Gounder, a recognized specialist in infectious diseases, who appeared on television several times during the Covid-19 pandemic.
State Department spokesman Ned Price tweeted shortly afterwards, "We are deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Grant Wahl."
"He had made football his life's work and we are devastated that he and his brilliant pen were no longer with us," the United States Soccer Federation wrote in a statement.
Before the United States-Wales meeting on November 21, the journalist had been detained by security personnel at the Ahmad Bin Ali stadium because he was wearing a rainbow T-shirt, he explained on Twitter.
Homosexual relations are criminalized in the small Gulf emirate.