The body of soccer journalist Grant Wahl is back in the United States.
"I so appreciated Grant Wahl, whose writing captured not only the essence of the beautiful game but also the world around it," Blinken wrote on Twitter about an hour after the repatriation was complete.
"I send my deepest condolences to his family, and thank our embassy team and Qatari partners who worked together so effectively to fulfill their wishes," Blinken wrote. Wahl, who had complained of respiratory problems earlier in the week and had been treated for a possible case of bronchitis, fell back in his seat in a section of Lusail Stadium reserved for journalists during extra time of the game, and reporters adjacent to him called for assistance.
Emergency services workers responded very quickly, treated him for 20 or 30 minutes on site and then took him out on a stretcher. The World Cup organizing committee said he was taken to Doha's Hamad General Hospital, but it did not state a cause of death. Wahl wrote for Sports Illustrated for more than two decades and then started his own website. He was a major voice informing an American public of soccer during a time of increased interest after the United States hosted the 1994 World Cup.
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