A professional soccer player from Ecuador has been killed again. Former national player Mario Pineida was shot dead in the street.
Ecuadorian professional soccer player Mario Pineida was shot dead on Wednesday in the port city of Guayaquil. His club Barcelona SC confirmed this in a statement.
Pineida, who turned 33, was part of the Ecuadorian national team squad in the 2018 and 2022 World Cup qualifiers, but was not selected for the 2022 finals in Qatar.
The police secure the scene of the attack.
“Barcelona SC deeply regrets to announce that we have been officially informed of the death of our player Mario Pineida, an event that occurred after an attack on him,” the club wrote on social networks.
The Interior Ministry also confirmed the incident and announced the deployment of a special unit to investigate. According to the Primicias news portal, Pineida was attacked by two gunmen on motorcycles who opened fire on him, his mother and another woman.
Frequent Violent crime against football professionals
There has been an increasing number of acts of violence against footballers in Ecuador recently: three second division players were killed in September, one of whom is said to have had connections to sports betting. A month later, local professional Bryan Angula was injured in a gun attack. Guayaquil is now considered a hotspot for organized crime.
Ecuador, once one of the safest countries in Latin America, is now an important transshipment point for cocaine between the producer countries Colombia and Peru and international markets. Between January and September alone, 1,900 murders were registered in the port city of Guayaquil – the highest number in the country.
German group opponent at the World Cup
Ecuador’s selection was drawn into a group with the German national team for the 2026 World Cup. The duel on the third and final match day will kick off on June 25th at 10 p.m. German time in the final stadium in New Jersey.
