British sports publications reported that the Costa Rican soccer player for the amateur team Deportivo Río Cañas, Jesús Alberto López Ortiz, was attacked by a crocodile, after the athlete died at the age of 30. The tragedy occurred on the Cañas River in the province of Guanacaste. The police had to shoot a crocodile to get the body of a soccer player.
The history of sports knows quite a few cases of this type when people outside the training process, while on vacation, fall on the tape of police reports. But the case of the Costa Rican Ortiz is unusual, since it is difficult to imagine how swimming in a local reservoir, you cannot know that he is full of alligators. Jesús Alberto was frankly unlucky. He couldn’t swim away from the animal, it was too late.
Interestingly, according to local residents, after the incident, they chased the reptile in their canoes, but this chase was unsuccessful. As a result, the crocodile was shot by law enforcement officers from the Guanacaste province.
Photo Source: Jam Press
The club’s press service reported that about a thousand people came to see off the footballer.
“This is a very difficult day for everyone. We will remember you as a coach, a footballer and also as a father. You will always be in our hearts. “Fly high friend,” Deportivo Río Cañas said in a statement.
López was an amateur soccer player for Deportivo Río Cañas and father of two children, eight and three years old. His family has gone public to help pay for the player’s funeral, while his team manager Luis Carlos Montes has also organized his own fundraiser.
Photo Source: Jam Press
About six years ago a similar incident occurred in Mozambique. The crocodile then attacked an African footballer during a training session along the banks of the Zambezi River. So the victim of the reptile was a very young man by sports standards, Estevao Alberto Gino, 19, who played for a local club with the mythical Brazilian name Atlético Mineiro from the town of Tete.
In that case, according to the team manager, the crocodile suddenly came out of the water, grabbed Gino by the torso and dragged him into the pond. The soccer player’s two friends, who were running with him, heard his screams, but they were so scared that they couldn’t do anything. According to them, the crocodile was about five meters long.
