Abdel Rahim Mohamed, an Egyptian TV commentator in Egypt died of a heart attack on Monday, June 25 after Egypt lost its final FIFA World Cup 2018 match to Saudi Arabia. Abdel was supposed to do a post-match analysis of the game in the studio for Nile Sports Channel but soon after the game, he suffered a heart attack after which he was rushed to the hospital where doctors tried to revive him. However, he was later pronounced dead. Egypt Today reported that Abdel was affected by the “poor performance of the national team”.
Abdel was also a former coach of leading Egyptian squad Zamalek.
An Egyptian commentator Abdel Rahim Mohamed died from a heart attack after Egypt crashed out of the World Cup following 2-1 defeat to Saudi Arabia pic.twitter.com/mVKhLLwFgm
— Enock Kobina Essel (@firminorob39) June 27, 2018
An #Egyptian television commentator died of a heart attack soon after Egypt’s last-minute defeat to Saudi Arabia in its final World Cup game on Monday..__
Abdel Rahim Mohamed, a well-known and respected figure #WorldCupRussia2018— geo (@delgeo1) June 26, 2018
Both Egypt and Saudi Arabia were already eliminated prior to this game and were only playing to secure themselves from not ending up in the bottom of their group. However, Egypt had never won a match in the history of FIFA World Cups and with this match, they also had a chance to create a history. The match started with a goal from Mo Salah and a penalty save by their goalkeeper El-Hadary, who, at 45 years, became the oldest player in the history of the tournament. Their hope, however, was shattered just four minutes after the first penalty save when Saudi Arabia was awarded another penalty and this time, Saudi Arabia turned that penalty into a goal and the match levelled 1-1. The score remained the same until the very last moment and everyone was expecting a draw until Salem struck the match-winning goal for Saudi Arabia, leaving Egyptian fans disappointed.
TV TRAGEDY_
World Cup 2018: Egyptian pundit Abdel Rahim Mohamed ‘dies after suffering heart attack when Saudi Arabia scored winner
— The Most GuardioLa (@frankewusi123) June 26, 2018
This is not the first case where a person has died due to the FIFA fever. A Messi fan from Kerala resorted to suicide after Argentina’s loss to Croatia on June 21. Whereas during the previous FIFA World Cup, a Chinese man died due to sleep deprivation after staying up too late to watch matches.
(Written by Abhijeet)
