Ex-Champions League footballer dies in ship sinking as divers hunt for survivors
A former footballer who appeared in the Champions League has died in a horror ship sinking.
Sorin Tufan played for Romanian giants Steaua Bucharest before injuries forced him to retire from professional football, aged just 26. He began working on ships and was the captain of a tugboat that sank in Romania‘s Port of Midia on Wednesday, March 18.
Local media reports say Tufan was brought to shore and pronounced dead after desperate efforts to resuscitate him. Divers are said to still be searching for four other missing crew members following the tragic incident, in which the tugboat was believed to have been assisting an oil tanker, when its engines cut out and it capsized.
(Image: Image Photo Agency/Getty Images)
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The former defender was reportedly only working that day because he had swapped shifts with a colleague.
Tufan came from a footballing family and was the son of ex-Farul Constanța striker Marin Tufan, who was part of Romania’s 1970 World Cup squad.
He began his career at Farului juniors at 10 and joined his father’s old club at the age of 17, before helping them win promotion to the top flight in 1988.
In 1992, he was transferred to Steaua, at the insistence of the legendary player and manager Anghel Iordanescu, who later left for the national team.
(Image: @csa.steaua.bucuresti/Instagram)
(Image: Image Photo Agency/Getty Images)
Due to injuries, he failed to establish himself and retired in 1994, after having played in European competition in a match against Dinamo Zagreb.
In a statement, Farul Constanta said: “Our thoughts go out to the family and loved ones in these terrible moments. May God rest him in peace.”
Steaua Bucharest also issued a statement, in which the former European Cup winners mourned Tufan’s “premature disappearance”.
