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Grant Wahl, soccer journalist and Shawnee Mission East alum, dies while covering World Cup

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Grant Wahl, a prominent soccer journalist and Johnson County native who graduated from Shawnee Mission East High School, has died. He was 49.

What we know: He was in Qatar for the 2022 World Cup and died while covering Friday’s quarterfinal match between Argentina and the Netherlands, according to NPR.

  • The Associated Press reports that other media members sitting near Wahl in the media area say Wahl fell back in his seat and others called for assistance.

U.S. Soccer issued a statement Friday night confirming Wahl’s death and saying it was “heartbroken.”

Reactions from across sports journalism, media and global soccer poured in Friday night, including locally.

Leading up to his death: He had been chronicling the day-to-day developments at the 2022 World Cup for his Substack blog, “Fútbol with Grant Wahl.”

  • Prior to the U.S. Men’s National Team’s first World Cup game last month against Wales, Wahl was detained for 30 minutes outside the stadium in Qatar for wearing a shirt depicting a soccer ball surrounded by a rainbow.
  • He was eventually let into the stadium, but Wahl called the incident an “unnecessary ordeal.”
  • Homosexuality is illegal in Qatar and FIFA, which governs the World Cup, has been criticized for hosting the tournament in that country.

On Monday, Wahl wrote on his Substack that he had visited a medical clinic in Qatar.

  • “My body finally broke down on me. Three weeks of little sleep, high stress and lots of work can do that to you,” Wahl wrote. “What had been a cold over the last 10 days turned into something more severe on the night of the USA-Netherlands game, and I could feel my upper chest take on a new level of pressure and discomfort.”
  • He wrote he “probably had bronchitis” and had been prescribed antibiotics and “heavy-duty cough syrup.”

Brother’s response: On Friday, Eric Wahl, Grant’s brother, posted a video message on Instagram, saying he felt the circumstances of his brother’s death were suspicious.

  • “I am gay. I am the reason he wore the rainbow shirt to the World Cup,” Eric Wahl says in the video. “My brother was healthy. He told me he received death threats. I do not believe my brother just died. I believe he was killed.”

Background: Born in Mission, Wahl was perhaps America’s most well-known soccer journalist and had covered the game for decades as it grew in prominence in this country.

  • He spent most of his career at Sports Illustrated and was also a correspondent for Fox Sports and CBS Sports.
  • In his career, he covered eight World Cups, as well as 12 NCAA tournaments and four Olympic games.
  • In 2007, he wrote the New York Times bestseller “The Beckham Experiment,” about international soccer star David Beckham’s move to Major League Soccer.
  • In 2011, Wahl briefly launched a bid for the presidency of FIFA, a move aimed at challenging what Wahl criticized as the corruption of the global soccer body under then-President Sepp Blatter.

About the author

Kyle Palmer
Kyle Palmer

Hi! I’m Kyle Palmer, the editor of the Johnson County Post.

Prior to joining the Post in 2020, I served as News Director for KCUR. I got my start in journalism at the University of Missouri, where I worked for KBIA, mid-Missouri’s NPR affiliate. After college, I spent 10 years as a teacher and went on to get a master’s degree in education policy from Stanford University.

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