On this 2014 photograph, sportswriter Grant Wahl works as a sideline reporter throughout halftime.
Andy Mead | YCJ | Icon Sportswire |Corbis | Getty Pictures
Grant Wahl, a longtime soccer sportswriter, died Friday in Qatar whereas overlaying the World Cup.
NPR nationwide supervising editor Russell Lewis tweeted that Wahl was overlaying the Argentina-Netherlands quarterfinal match when he died.
A number of information organizations reported Wahl collapsed within the press tribune and was tended to by paramedics.
U.S. Soccer mentioned in its assertion that the crew was “heartbroken” over Wahl’s dying.
“Followers of soccer and journalism of the best high quality knew we might all the time depend on Grant to ship insightful and entertaining tales about our recreation,” the group mentioned.
The reason for dying was not instantly out there.
In a submit Dec. 5 on his private web site, Wahl mentioned he felt sick and that medical personnel on-site on the World Cup informed him he most likely had bronchitis. He mentioned he was given antibiotics.
“My physique lastly broke down on me,” he wrote. “Three weeks of little sleep, excessive stress and many work can try this to you. What had been a chilly during the last 10 days become one thing extra extreme on the evening of the USA-Netherlands recreation, and I might really feel my higher chest tackle a brand new degree of strain and discomfort.”
His spouse, Dr. Céline Gounder, tweeted late Friday that the information got here as a “full shock.”
“I’m so grateful for the assist of my husband @GrantWahl’s soccer household & of so many pals who’ve reached out tonight,” she mentioned.
Wahl was recognized for his work for Sports activities Illustrated and as a commentator on NPR. He wrote a well-received ebook about David Beckham’s foray into the U.S. soccer, titled “The Beckham Experiment.”
It was the primary New York Instances Bestseller with soccer as the subject.
Sports activities Illustrated’s prime editors mentioned late Friday that he began there in 1996 and left to pursue impartial tasks in 2020.
“We’re shocked and devastated on the information of Grant’s passing,” SI’s co-editors in chief, Ryan Hunt and Stephen Cannella, mentioned. “We had been proud to name him a colleague and buddy for 20 years. No author within the historical past of SI has been extra passionate concerning the sport he beloved and the tales he wished to inform.”
Wahl is from Mission, Kansas, and attended Princeton College as an undergraduate.
This can be a growing story. Please test again for updates.
