Grant Wahl, seen here in 2014, died on Friday while covering the World Cup in Qatar. He was 48. (Fred Kfoury III/Icon Sportswire/Getty Images)
Longtime American journalist and football reporter Grant Wahl died on Friday while covering the World Cup in Qatar.
He was 48.
Wahl was covering the Argentina-Netherlands game at the Lusail Stadium on Friday as he sat seemingly unconscious in his seat in the press box. Medics tended to him for almost 30 minutes before taking him to a local hospital on a stretcher. His cause of death is unknown.
Wahl was a popular reporter in the United States, working for both CBS Sports and Sports Illustrated before launching his own platform through Substack. Outside of his football coverage, Wahl was responsible for several iconic Sports Illustrated cover stories – including the story “The Chosen One” about LeBron James while he was still in high school, a Kevin Durant feature film while he was in Texas, and more.
Wahl had made headlines for refusing to take off a rainbow shirt in Qatar and frequently wrote on controversial issues surrounding the event.
Wahl’s wife Celine Gounder and US Soccer confirmed the news.
Many in the football world and journalists in the United States paid tribute to Wahl on social media on Friday night.
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