The emotion and pain of Lucas Pusineri as Andrés Balanta wakes up, the Colombian footballer who died in a training session for Atlético Tucumán

Andres Balanta this weekend he received his last farewell in Cali, where family, friends and soccer fans paid him moving tributes. The midfielder of Atletico Tucumán died on Tuesday at the age of 22 during the team’s second preseason practice. Luca Pusinerithe coach who had also directed him to Deportivo Cali, attended the ceremony, where he was seen very shocked, disconsolate, hit hard by the loss.

The principal’s DT traveled to Cali together with a manager of the club, Gabriel Díaz. Balanta was awarded on Saturday at the Deportivo Cali headquarters. And this Sunday he was fired during a tour of the city before being taken to South Metropolitan Cemetery.

The 22-year-old footballer has died after collapsing in mid-training. They did resuscitation and defibrillation maneuvers for more than 40 minutes, but without success. He arrived at the hospital lifeless.

The Colombian and world football environment mourned the death of the Colombian footballer, who was already passed out when he was a youth team of Deportivo Cali.

What did the autopsy say?

“Mr. Balanta would have died of heart problems, which will be confirmed once the pathology studies have been completed, according to what the doctor who performed the autopsy communicated to us,” he said. Ignacio López Bustoshead of the Homicide Specialized Fiscal Unit, which is investigating the case.

Who was Andres Balanta?

The Colombian midfielder (originally from Cali) made his debut at Deportivo Cali in 2018. A year later, already under the technical direction of Pusineri, he established himself as a starter in the Cali team. A classic midfielder, like “Wilmar Barrios”, as Andrés himself called himself when he arrived in Argentina years later. He was able to become champion with Cali in 2021 and has integrated several youth teams of his country. In the first part of this 2022, the Libertadores had played, facing Boca in the group stage.

In the middle of this year he had the opportunity to go on loan (with option to buy) to the Rector at Pusineri’s request. “I feel happy and lucky to have arrived in such a special place, a team with such passionate fans. The truth is that for me it is a great opportunity to be able to take this leap in my career, coming here raises my expectations as a player and how to grow and I always want to evolve, and I think it will be a very important step in my professional life,” he said upon his arrival in the country, as well as underlining DT himself.

In this semester he had the opportunity to enter seven games in A. Tucumán, but playing only 38 minutes in total. He had provided an assist against Newell’s, in a 2-0 win for the Dean at the time. Against the locals and pass-goal for Tesuri from the late Balanta.