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Uruguayan Nacional soccer player Juan Izquierdo dies in Brazil 5 days after collapse during game in Sao Paulo
Sao Paulo — Uruguayan soccer player Juan Izquierdo died Tuesday at a hospital in Brazil five days after collapsing during a game at Sao Paulo. He was 27.
Hospital Albert Einstein in Sao Paulo said in a statement that the Nacional defender died at 9:38 p.m. local time following “cardiorespiratory arrest associated with his cardiac arrhythmia.”
Izquierdo was taken to the hospital after he collapsed late in a Copa Libertadores soccer match at Sao Paulo’s Morumbi Stadium last Thursday.
The Uruguayan club posted a statement on social media saying Izquierdo’s death is felt “in deep pain and impact in our hearts” and “all Nacional is in grief for his irreplaceable loss.”
EITAN ABRAMOVICH/AFP/Getty
South American soccer’s governing body also posted a tribute. CONMEBOL president Alejandro Domínguez said he’s “deeply sorry about the early departure of Juan Izquierdo.”
“South American soccer is in mourning,” he said. Other federations, including Uruguay, Brazil and Argentina, also expressed their condolences.
In a statement Monday, doctors at the hospital said Izquierdo was put into neurological critical care because of increased intracranial pressure. He had been on a ventilator since Sunday.
Uruguayan media said Izquierdo’s parents and Nacional executives were at the hospital in Sao Paulo. Izquierdo was married and had two children – the youngest, a boy, was born earlier in August.
Uruguayan national team players were among those expressing their condolences.
“Pain, sadness, it is hard to explain,” Inter Miami striker Luis Suárez said. “May he rest in peace. I wish a lot of strength for his family and friends.”
NELSON ALMEIDA/AFP/Getty
Uruguay’s first- and second-division soccer leagues were postponed last weekend due to concerns over Izquierdo’s health. Sao Paulo players wore a shirt in support of the Uruguayan footballer before the team’s 2-1 Brazilian league win against Vitoria on Sunday.
The Brazilian club also posted a message after Izquierdo’s death.
“We had days of prayers, union and hope, and today we are in deep sadness with the news of the death of Juan Izquierdo,” Sao Paulo’s club statement said. “Our condolences to family, friends, teammates, Nacional fans and all the Uruguayan people in this moment of grief.”
Izquierdo’s professional career began in 2018 at local club Cerro. He joined Peñarol the following year, but didn’t get much playing time.
“Peñarol is deeply sorry about the passing of Juan Manuel Izquierdo. We express our heartfelt condolences and we embrace his family, his friends and Nacional in this moment of so much pain,” Peñarol said in its social media channels.
After leaving Peñarol, Izquierdo moved to Montevideo Wanderers.
His athletic form and sharp tackles caught the attention of Mexico’s San Luís in 2021, but he quickly returned to the Montevideo Wanderers. Izquierdo was signed by Nacional in 2022, played one match and then was transferred to the local Liverpool club.
The defender was one of Liverpool’s best players in the campaign that led to a Uruguayan league title in 2023, the club’s first in more than a century.
Izquierdo returned to Nacional this year and was vying for a position in the starting lineup with veteran Sebastián Coates, who played for Uruguay’s national team. He played 23 matches this year and scored one goal.
Almost two decades ago, Sao Caetano defender Serginho died hours after collapsing at Morumbi Stadium during a Brazilian league match against Sao Paulo. Doctors tried to resucitate him on the pitch, as tens of thousands of fans watched in shock and players wept and prayed on the sidelines.
Serginho’s death forced Brazilian soccer executives to change health protocols to allow defibrillators in every stadium. Doctors used a defibrillator on Izquierdo as he was be rushed to the nearby Hospital Albert Einstein.
“Such sadness, 20 years later,” former Sao Caetano player Anderson Lima said on Instagram. “May God comfort his family in this sad moment.”
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President-elect Donald Trump fired another salvo in his long-running effort to have his New York criminal conviction tossed, with his attorneys alleging earlier this month that there was juror misconduct during his trial.
In a previously undisclosed Dec. 3 letter to Justice Juan Merchan that was made public Tuesday, Todd Blanche and Emil Bove wrote that there was “grave juror misconduct” in the proceedings in a Manhattan courtroom earlier this year.
However, heavy redactions in the letter and subsequent exchanges with prosecutors obscured almost all information about the accusations themselves.
“The jury in this case was not anywhere near fair and impartial,” they wrote.
Merchan on Tuesday directed Trump to make the redacted letter public, and instructed prosecutors to publish their own redacted responses. The judge also criticized Trump’s lawyers for making such serious allegations without sworn statements.
Prosecutors called the allegations “vague accusations of juror misconduct” in one of their responses. They claimed Trump’s attorneys did not want to have the allegations subject to investigation or a public hearing.
“Notwithstanding the import of their allegations, counsel do not request and in fact oppose a hearing at which their allegations could be fully examined, referring to such a hearing as ‘invasive fact-finding,'” wrote a prosecutor for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
Still, they argued such an investigation wasn’t yet appropriate.
“Counsel’s allegations fall far short of the standard required to request such a hearing in any event,” they wrote.
It is unclear if the allegations relate to a June 7 letter from Merchan that alerted prosecutors and Trump’s attorneys to a comment left on the court’s Facebook page the night before Trump’s conviction.
“My cousin is a juror and says Trump is getting convicted,” the user wrote. “Thank you folks for all your hard work!!!!”
The person who made the comment had previously described themselves as a “professional s**tposter.”
Trump was found guilty in May of 34 counts of falsifying business records, connected with a scheme to cover up a “hush money” payment to an adult film star. He pleaded not guilty and is contesting the conviction on multiple fronts.
Japanese automakers Honda Motor and Nissan Motor are reportedly entering merger talks to help them compete against Tesla and other electric vehicle makers, according to the Nikkei financial newspaper.
The two firms are considering operating under a single holding company, and are expected to sign a memorandum of understanding for the new entity, according to the Tokyo-based Nikkei.
The paper also reports that Honda and Nissan are considering bringing in Mitsubishi Motors, of which Nissan is the top shareholder, under the holding company to create one of the world’s largest auto groups.
In a statement to CBS MoneyWatch, Nissan said it has not announced the details in the report, but that the two companies “are exploring various possibilities for future collaboration, leveraging each other’s strengths,” which it announced in March.
Honda did not immediately respond to CBS MoneyWatch’s request for comment.
In March, Japan’s number two and three automakers, after rival Toyota, deepened ties when they agreed to explore a strategic partnership on electric vehicles.
Analysts characterized the move as one that is aimed at helping the automakers catch up with Chinese competitors, including BYD, which have captured more market share, while Japanese firms have lost ground by focusing more on hybrid vehicles.
China overtook Japan as the world’s biggest vehicle exporter in 2023, aided in part by its dominance in the electric car space.
Honda announced plans in May to double its investment in electric vehicles to $65 billion by 2030, as part of a target set three years ago of achieving 100% EV sales by 2040.
Similarly, Nissan in March announced that 16 of the 30 new models it plans to launch over the next three years would be “electrified.”
Climate concerns drive demand
The world’s auto giants are increasingly prioritizing electric and hybrid vehicles, with demand growing for less polluting models as concern about climate change grows.
At the same time, however, consumer demand for EVs has slowed amid high prices, range anxiety and developing infrastructure around charging points.
Hybrids that combine battery power and internal combustion engines have remained popular in Japan, accounting for 40% of sales in 2022.
But Japanese firms’ focus on hybrids has left them in the slow lane in meeting the growing appetite for purely electric vehicles. Just 1.7% of cars sold in Japan in 2022 were electric, compared to 15% in western Europe and 5.3% in the United States.
