Utrecht defender dies aged 26

Utrecht defender David di Tommaso has died in his sleep aged 26, the Dutch first division club said yesterday. According to media reports, the French defender suffered a heart attack at home on Monday night. He had a wife and one child. "One thing we...

Utrecht defender David di Tommaso has died in his sleep aged 26, the Dutch first division club said yesterday.

According to media reports, the French defender suffered a heart attack at home on Monday night. He had a wife and one child.

"One thing we know for sure - di Tommaso was not taking doping products," a spokesman of the club was quoted as saying by the ANP news agency.

Di Tommaso started his career at Monaco and later played for French second division Sedan. He was a member of the Monaco side which won the French title in 2000 but was not a regular, playing seven matches that season.

In July 2004, he joined Utrecht from Sedan and played 31 times last season when he was the club's player of the year. He had appeared in 13 matches this season including last Sunday's 1-0 home league win over Ajax.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.