Santiago Castrillon tragically died at the age of 18. (Image: santi.camaron_10/Instagram)
Tributes have poured in for a teenage footballer who passed away in hospital after collapsing during a match. Santiago Castrillon, a promising young talent for Millonarios, the second most successful club in Colombia, which competes in the top-flight Primera A league, died a day after he was rushed to the hospital.
The Bogota-based club, also known as The Blue Ballet, issued a statement honouring the 18-year-old, who wore the number 10 shirt. It read: “Millonarios FC reports that on Saturday player Santiago Castrillon suffered a collapse during a National U-20 Tournament match.
“He was immediately attended to by the team’s doctors and transferred by ambulance to a high-complexity hospital in the north of Bogota, where he was treated in intensive care by all specialists in the cardiovascular area.
“Despite medical efforts, Santiago was unable to recover and passed away this Sunday in the company of his family, teammates, and friends.”
It added, referencing the club’s ‘The Blues’ nickname: “Today football comes to a stop. The blue heart is broken. Today pain overwhelms us, fills us with helplessness and sadness. With deep sorrow we bid farewell to our number 10, our teammate, our friend.
“Santiago didn’t just play football. He lived it, felt it, shared it with a smile that today remains etched in all of us. We raise our prayers for his soul. To his family and loved ones, a message of strength in this moment that is impossible to understand. Santiago, our dear teammate, rest in peace.”
The attacking midfielder, who would have been 19 in September, was born in the city of Bucaramanga, the capital of the department of Santander in north-central Colombia. He joined Millonarios in 2021.
Castrillon was playing against Millonarios’s arch-rivals, Independiente Santa Fe, when he collapsed.
Santiago Castrillon with Millonarios. (Image: santi.camaron_10/Instagram)
Luis Eduardo Pedraza, a teacher at Guayos FC where the youngster began playing club football before moving to Bogota, said in an interview before the tragedy: “Santi is an excellent person, he is a very hardworking, very humble, very disciplined boy, very passionate about soccer, with a clear vision of what he wanted; since he was a child he was always like that.”
“From a footballing perspective, he was extraordinary; he had qualities that at his age were dazzling. Back then, he was a skinny kid, but with very good technique, a good change of pace, and he handled both sides of his game very well.”
Before his death, Castrillon trained regularly with the Millonarios first team and in October last year received his first official call-up for a BetPlay match against Atletico Bucaramanga.
Independiente Santa Fe, whose players prayed for Castrillon at the end of Saturday’s fixture after he was taken to hospital, shared their own statement: “Independiente Santa Fe deeply regrets the passing of Santiago Castrillon, U-20 player for Millonarios.
“Today football is in mourning, and we come together to support his entire family and loved ones during this difficult time.”