Ahmed Refaat: Egyptian president launches investigation into footballer's death after cardiac arrest

As previously reported by NationalWorld, Egyptian footballer Ahmed Refaat died in July - four months after the Modern Sport FC star suffered a heart attack on the pitch. Refaat was playing against Al-Ittihad Alexandria when he collapsed in the 88th minute and was rushed to hospital.

But four months after his cardiac incident, Refaat was found dead, just days after a TV interview where he insinuated mistreatment from authorities. Now Egyptian president Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi has ordered a public investigation into his death.

In the interview with Ibraim Fayek, he said: “What happened to me and what I had to go through isn’t normal for a football player, or a normal person for that matter.”

According to reports, tensions between Refaat, his agent Nader Shawky and former owner of Modern Sport Club, Ahmed Diab, blew up after the latter was accused of failing on his promise to Refaat needed to get the travel permits to loan him to Al-Wahda. Three months into his loan at Al-Wahada, his contract was terminated - invalidating his residence permit and resulting in a two-month prison sentence.

Shawky, who took to social media for a live stream with his followers, said: “He felt injustice, a lack of fairness; he felt he was tricked.”

Refaat died sixteen days after his TV interview, suffering a second cardiac arrest - and so while a cause of death is known, it’s the circumstances around his death that President Al-Sisi wants to investigate.