The world of football suffered a fatal blow after an Indonesian footballer, who was reportedly playing a friendly fixture for his club in Singapore, died after being struck by lightning on the pitch. The victim is being identifed as Septain Raharja, who was a 35-year old footballer and the incident took place on Saturday, February 10, between 2 FLO FC Bandung and FBI Subang at the Siliwangi Stadium in Bandung, West Java.
This incident has sent shockwaves around the world and many fans and local players and coaches in Singapore are mourning the death of the footballer. However, this is not the first time that such type of incident has happened in the country of Singapore. Co-incidentallt, almost 12 months ago, a similar incident occured at the very same stadium, as a young football player residing in Bojonegoro, East Java, too, was struck by lightning.
The occasion of the incident was the Soeratin U-13 Cup in 2023, and soon after the horrific incident, the young footballer suffered a cardiac arrest and was immediately, without unnecesssary delays, rushed to the Ibnu Sina Hospital in Bojonegoro. Upon the medical treatment received, the U-13 footballer successfully recovered consciousness from what could have been a highly potential fatal blow.
The footballing world has been seeing such sort of incidents in the past as well, not just in Singapore, but in different parts of the world, especially Brazil, where, a 21-year old footballer by the name of Caio Hemrique met a similar fate in 2023 but couldn't recover from the injuries and died later in the hospital.