A teenage soccer player collapsed on the field and died during a training session in Croatia, local media reported Wednesday.

The 13-year-old was in the middle of a training session in Varazdin, 100 kilometres northwest of the capital city Zagreb. His coach and the club doctor immediately intervened and managed to resuscitate the boy, but he died later in hospital.

What caused the teenage soccer player’s premature death is unknown yet. The cause will be released after the doctors of the hospital where he died will perform an autopsy.

The boy underwent a mandatory medical examination before signing up for the local team NK Varteks, so apparently, the team officials and employees can’t be held responsible for the tragic death, but how the medical examination was performed and how the 13-year-old cooperated no one knows. 

This unfortunate incident follows the similar death of 19-year-old Ivan Karacic, another young Croat who died after training in March last year.

Similar cases seem to occur more often in the European soccer leagues over the past decade. The most recent of these is the death of Sevilla’s FC midfielder Antonio Puerta.

The 22-year-old was struck by heart attack in the 35th minute of his side’s match against Getafe CF on 25th August in the Primera División and collapsed near the goal.

His team-mate Ivica Dragutinović and club medical staff rushed to his side to prevent him from swallowing his tongue. Puerta was resuscitated and after regaining his consciousness he was escorted out of the field and into Estadio Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán locker room.

But there he suffered a second hart attack and after another cardiac resurrection he was brought immediately to the Virgen Del Rocío hospital were the doctors put him under intensive care.

According to Doctor Francisco Murillo, Puerta had suffered multiple organ failure and irreversible brain damage as a result of prolonged cardiac arrests caused by a hereditary heart disease known as arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy.

Puerta’s death from cardiac disease is comparable to those of Marc-Vivien Foé, Matt Gadsby, Miklós Fehér and Serginho, all of whom collapsed during soccer matches.