Colombia: international hope Andrés Balanta dies in training at 22

Terrible news for Colombian football.

The South American country, one of the great footballing nations to be absent from the 2022 World Cup, has just learned of the death of Andrés Balanta, one of its international hopefuls.

The Colombian Federation has announced the sudden death of the young 22-year-old defensive midfielder, an international hopeful who has passed through all the youth teams in the country.

The Atlético Tucumán player collapsed during training with his club.

Despite several attempts at resuscitation, he died a few minutes later on the way to the hospital.

Atlético Tucumán lamented confirming the fallecimiento of the Colombian soccer player Andrés Balanta.

Abrazamos y acompañamos con profundo respect a sus familiares y amigos en este momento.

pic.twitter.com/bwHWNrrk7h

— Atlético Tucumán (@ATOficial) November 29, 2022

"He fell during the warm-up, we brought him in urgently, in two minutes they gave him an hour of CPR but they couldn't get him out of there," said a staff member. to the Colombian media.

It wouldn't be the first time that Andrés Balanta has suffered a fainting spell during training.

In August 2019, before a match of the "Azucareros", a drop in tension would have been at the origin of a first incident without consequences for the late Colombian midfielder, according to

.

The reasons for his death are not yet known.

Andrés Balanta had played in the U17 and then U19 World Cup with his country.

Titled in the Colombian championship last year with Deportivo Cali, the club of the city in which he was born and with which he had played no less than 116 games for 4 goals scored, he was loaned this season to Atlético Tucuman ( Argentina).

Colombian football has just lost one of its hopes.