 |
| |
|
 |
 |
 |
|||||||||||
|
Life and death Foe told teammates 'It's do or die' at halftimePosted: Friday June 27, 2003 12:28 PMLYON, France (Reuters) -- "Boys, even if it means dying on the pitch, we must win this semifinal," Marc-Vivien Foe told his Cameroon teammates at halftime of Thursday's Confederations Cup match against Colombia. Thirty minutes later, the midfielder collapsed without warning in the center circle. He died soon afterwards. Cameroon captain Rigobert Song told reporters on Friday he still could not believe what had happened to his great friend "Marco." "It's terrible, I have never lived through anything like it. Marco wasn't ill, how could it have happened?" a sobbing Song said. "We started as kids together, he and I. He's a neighbor from my district of Yaounde and now he's gone. "We shared so many things when we arrived in Europe together. For me he was like a brother. "Yesterday at halftime, his last words were 'Boys, even if it means dying on the pitch, we must win this semifinal.' And he was the victim. It's terrible." Song said Cameroon, who won the semifinal 1-0, would try to win Sunday's final against France in Paris, but it would be difficult. "We will pull ourselves together, we will try to win in memory of Marco," he said. "Seeing the reaction of the French players, I think it's better to play because together we will make it a celebration of football. "The final should be a celebration for Marco, our friend who has left us. "After that we will take his body back to Cameroon and there the players will bury him." Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. |
|
|||||||||
|
|||||||||||
