In the 72nd minute of a Confederations Cup semi-final in Lyon on June 26, 2003, Marc-Vivien Foé collapsed in the centre circle with nobody near him. Medical staff worked on him on the pitch and in the tunnel for 45 minutes. He was 28, played his club football in England for Manchester City, and had an undiagnosed heart condition. Since then, the deaths of several more players during matches have changed how football protects its players.
1. Marc-Vivien Foé (June 26, 2003)
The Cameroon midfielder was on loan at Manchester City from Lyon, which made the stadium where he died his home ground. An autopsy found hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a thickening of the heart muscle that can cause sudden death during exercise. City retired his number 23 shirt. Cameroon went on to play the final against France three days later, and the French captain, Marcel Desailly, and the Cameroon captain, Rigobert Song, lifted the trophy together.
2. Miklós Fehér (January 25, 2004)
The Hungarian striker had just come on for Benfica against Vitória de Guimarães and been shown a yellow card. He smiled at the referee, bent forward and fell backwards. He died of a heart attack in hospital that night, aged 24. The whole scene was broadcast live on Portuguese television. Benfica retired his number 29 shirt.
3. Antonio Puerta (August 2007)
The Sevilla defender collapsed in his own penalty area during the first league match of the 2007 to 2008 season, on August 25. He got up and walked off, then collapsed again in the dressing room and died three days later, aged 22. His partner was pregnant with their first child.
4. Phil O’Donnell (December 29, 2007)
Four months after Puerta, the Motherwell captain collapsed as he was about to be substituted during a Scottish Premier League match against Dundee United. He was 35 and died of heart failure. Motherwell had his nephew, David Clarkson, in the same team that day.
5. Piermario Morosini (April 14, 2012)
The Livorno midfielder collapsed in the 31st minute of a Serie B match at Pescara and died of cardiac arrest, aged 25. His parents and his brother had already died, and he had been caring for a disabled sister. An Italian inquiry later examined why a defibrillator at the ground was not used. Italy suspended all football that weekend.
The players who survived
A month before Morosini died, Bolton’s Fabrice Muamba collapsed at White Hart Lane during an FA Cup tie against Tottenham. His heart stopped for 78 minutes. A cardiologist who was in the crowd ran onto the pitch to help, and Muamba was given repeated shocks with a defibrillator. He survived and retired from playing later that year. In June 2021, Christian Eriksen collapsed playing for Denmark against Finland at Euro 2020. His captain, Simon Kjær, cleared his airway and organised his teammates into a wall around him while medics restarted his heart with a defibrillator. Eriksen was fitted with an implanted defibrillator and returned to international football nine months later.
After Foé, FIFA and UEFA brought in heart screening for players at major tournaments, and defibrillators and trained pitch-side medical teams are now standard at professional grounds. Muamba and Eriksen are alive because those changes were in place when their hearts stopped.