The recent death of American soccer writer Grant Wahl shocked the sport. Wahl, 49, collapsed during the World Cup quarterfinal match between Argentina and the Netherlands on Friday. The journalist’s wife, Celine Gounder, revealed on Wednesday that her husband suffered from an ascending aortic aneurysm.
“The New York City Medical Examiner’s Office has performed an autopsy,” Gounder wrote on Grant’s website. “Grant died of a ruptured, slow-growing, undetected ascending aortic aneurysm with hemopericardium. The chest pressure that he experienced shortly before his death may have represented the initial symptoms”.
“No amount of CPR or shocks would have saved him,” Gounder continued. “Her death of his was not related to COVID. His death was not related to vaccination status. There was nothing nefarious in his death.”
Grant Wahl’s death ends a storied and celebrated career
Wahl began his journalism career at Sports Illustrated immediately after a college internship at the Miami Herald. The writer quickly rose through the ranks to become one of the most respected soccer journalists in the country. However, he did not always focus primarily on soccer.
In one of his highlights as a journalist, Wahl did a cover story on a then-teenage basketball prodigy named Lebron James. Not only was the story gripping, but the Sports Illustrated cover became one of the most famous in the publication’s history. The writer and the athlete have kept in touch since the article was written 20 years ago.
In 2009, Wahl essentially focused solely on soccer. He became a mainstay of the United States men’s and women’s national teams from then on. The journalist also wrote a New York Times Best Seller about David Beckham’s move to the LA Galaxy in 2007.
After his death, the World Cup organizers displayed Wahl’s photo on video screens inside Al Bayt Stadium in Qatar before the quarter-final match between France and England. Flowers were also placed in the typical writer’s place in the stadium. The CDC said Wahl’s particular condition killed about 10,000 people in 2019.
PHOTO: IMAGO/Xinhua
