Rest in Peace, Dani!

Sometimes you don’t have to write tones of ink to describe best how you feel. And to show your humanity – the humanity every single human being holds beneath. No matter what part of the Earth he lives in. But default sport is there to entertain us. But sometimes it shows us that it is not only about joy, euphoria, violence, anger and the billions the rich owners are spending – sometimes through all these emerges that feeling for sympathy, self-denial and unity.

Unfortunately it takes a tragedy to show our sympathy. It is a miracle when the modern world of football comes out as one. And it is sad in recent years we see it happen only when a player dies. As it was on when Dani Jarque passed away. While talking on the phone to his girlfriend. The trip to the Italian base camp Coverciano was the last in the life of the Espanyol captain. He was only 26 years old.

His tragic faith reminded us of another promising young Spanish player – Antonio Puerta. The Sevilla player, just like Jarque, was expecting the happiest moment of his life – the birth of his first child. A year ago another Spanish player collapsed on the field. But the life of Ruben de la Red was saved. He would probably never ever play football again. Bulgaria had it’s place in the black list as well. Less than 12 months ago a 17-year old youngster died during a game in the third division. From my childhood I remember the face of Ivan Lardev – the tall Pirin (Blagoevgrad_ defender who fell on the ground while practicing and died on the field.

All those human beings were representatives of the beauty of the game and can be pointed out as an example for professionalism. It is useless to wonder what caused their deaths. Let’s just take a look at Jarque’s lifelong history – a kid from a poor Catalan family, who followed the steps of his dream – the steps of his heart. Started his career at Espanyol as a 12-year old, who went on to become the club’s captain. Destiny is cruel. Just a week before he died Dani lead his team out with the captain’s armband. For the first and last time of his career – at the newly opened Espanyol stadium. The game against Liverpool was won 3:0. Now the pain of the millions of people who love the game is devastating. And everyone wonders what the future holds.

For Espanyol the future will be hard. Dani was a catalan player who came out through the youth ranks. Living and breathing with the white-blue idea. And had to be the great leader of the new Espanyol project. However, destiny had it’s own saying. Jarque is now a part of the black list of sports players who died on duty. But he was what a true footballer must be. That is why he would never be forgotten. Rest in peace, Dani!

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