Portuguese footballer Paollo Madeira Oliveira has died after the car he was travelling in was crushed by two lorries in a horrific accident in Vietnam.
The smash also claimed the lives of the assistant coach and team doctor for the Hoang Anh Gia Lai football club, who were also travelling in the same car.
A fourth person was taken to hospital with injuries.
The president of the club, named as Doan Nguyen Duc, said that the 48-year-old assistant coach, Duong Minh Ninh, as well as Doan Trong Tri, 29, and the 27-year-old dual Brazilian and Portuguese national, were on their way home after a match on 12th August.
The footballer’s heartbroken mother, named as Katyuscia Madeira, told local media that her son had been resting at the time, adding: “I don’t think he felt anything.”
She said that her son was not on the bus with the other players because he had been selected for a photo shoot after winning an award for the number of goals he had scored.
Katyuscia said: “A lorry hit the back of the car and then another ‘squeezed’ it.”
She added: “Paollo was sleeping and wearing headphones. I don’t think he felt anything.”
Paollo was born in Santos, on the Brazilian coast near Sao Paulo, and was living in Vietnam, playing for the Hoang Anh Gia Lai football club as a forward.
His mother and brother live in Portugal, according to local media.
Katyuscia said: “He was happy. He was set to arrive [in Portugal] on the 16th and, on the 20th, he was going to go to Brazil, in Santos, because he is in love with the city.”
She added: “Everything was so programmed, he was full of plans… Those plans were cut short.”
Katyuscia said that she is now waiting for her son’s body to be returned to Portugal where the family will decide whether he will be buried or cremated.
She said: “It is the worst kind of loss. Before I said that I could imagine the pain of the mother, but today I know that I never imagined how great the pain of losing a child is.”
Paollo reportedly became passionate about football at an early age and started playing in Brazil before his career took off in Portugal, where he was naturalised as a Portuguese citizen.
He played for CF Estrela Amadora and Farense before moving to Vietnam.
His mum said: “Football was his life. He said that there was nothing else in the world that he knew how to be better. He was always a warrior.”
