Shortly after watching Egypt lose in heartbreaking fashion for the third time in the opening round of the FIFA 2018 World Cup in Russia, longtime television commentator Abdel Rahim Mohamed reportedly suffered cardiac arrest and died after being transported to a hospital.
According to USA Today, Mohamed became “emotional” after Saudi Arabia scored a last-minute goal against Egypt to win their match on Monday, and all but ending Egypt’s chances of moving on in the global tournament.
Egypt Today reports that the “poor performance of the national team” seemed to affect Mohamed as the game progressed. Ahmed Fawzi, a former Egypt national team player who was also in the studio, told El Watan News that Mohamed looked “exhausted” by the time Saudi Arabia cemented their 2-1 victory over the team, USA Today reports.
When time came for Mohamed to deliver on-air analysis for the Nile Sports Channel after the match, he experienced a heart attack and was quickly taken to a medical center within the studio’s campus, per Egypt Today. His son then rushed him to a local hospital, where doctors tried to stabilize Mohamed, who previously coached Zamalek, a Egyptian soccer team.
Despite their attempts, Mohamed was pronounced dead a half hour later.
There was high hopes for Egypt coming into the World Cup, thanks to their superstar footballer, Mo Salah. But during the Group A of the tournament, where eight groups of four teams face each other with the top two teams moving on to the next round, Egypt finished dead last in their group. But during their match with Saudia Arabia, Salah scored an early goal that seemed to ignite the team, yet they would go on to lose 1-2.
The Egypt team has not been without controversy this World Cup, as Salah was pictured at a banquet hosted by the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, who is accused of multiple human rights abuses.
According to Yahoo Sports, fans chanted “horrible players” at Egypt’s team bus after their loss on Monday.
This article originally appeared on PEOPLE.
