Mario Pineida, a former Ecuador international, was killed in a shooting in the port city of Guayaquil.
Ecuadorian footballer Mario Pineida has been shot dead in the port city of Guayaquil, underscoring growing concerns about escalating gang violence linked to drug trafficking in the country.
His club, Barcelona SC, confirmed the death of the thirty-three-year-old on Wednesday, saying it had been officially notified that Pineida died following an attack in the city.
In a statement shared on X, the club says it received the news “with deep sorrow” and described the incident as a targeted attack against the player.
Pineida was capped for Ecuador during the 2018 and 2022 World Cup qualifying campaigns, although he was not selected for the squad that competed at the 2022 finals in Qatar. He also played professionally for Brazilian side Fluminense in 2022.
Ecuador’s interior ministry confirmed Pineida’s death and said a specialised police unit has been assigned to investigate the case.
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Local media reports said the footballer was attacked by assailants riding motorcycles, who also injured his mother and another woman during the incident.
Pineida’s killing comes amid a surge in violence affecting professional footballers in Ecuador. In September, three second-division players were killed, while another local player, Bryan Angula, was injured in a shooting the following month.
Once considered one of Latin America’s safest countries, Ecuador has become a major transit route for cocaine produced in Colombia and Peru. Guayaquil, a key port city, has emerged as a focal point for organised crime, with shootings, extortion and bomb attacks on the rise.
Authorities say the city recorded nearly one thousand nine hundred murders between January and September, the highest number nationwide during that period.
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