By Andrew Warshaw
December 6 – The death from a routine virus of Diego Mendieta, a Paraguayan player based in Indonesia, has outraged the international players’ union, FIFPro.
The 32-year-old striker, married with two children, died late on Monday (December 3) in a hospital in Solo in Central Java according to reports.
Mendieta, who had also played in China and Malaysia, had apparently wanted to return home but was unable to as the club owed him four months’ wages worth 120 million rupiah (£7,750/$12,500/€9,500).
“He always complained of being lonely,” Guntur Hernawan, head of the internal medicine division at Moewardi Hospital in Solo, told reporters.
Mendieta is reported to have died from the cytomegalovirus – normally easily treatable with medication.
FIFPro said it would be investigating and would bring the case to the attention of FIFA.
“FIFPro demand that the Indonesian football association make an end to the structural mismanagement of countless football clubs,” the global union said in a statement.
Reports said Mendieta’s club, Persis Solo, has now paid the outstanding arrears to his widow although the appalling case is a reflection of the dysfunctional way the game is organised in the populous Asian country.
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