Soccer Journalist Grant Wahl’s Cause of Death Revealed

Grant Wahl, the 49-year-old American soccer journalist who suddenly collapsed and died while covering the World Cup in Qatar on Friday, died from an aortic aneurysm, according to his wife.

Celine R. Gounder, Wahl’s wife and an infectious disease doctor who served on Joe Biden’s COVID-19 Advisory Board transition team, revealed the autopsy findings on CBS Mornings.

“It’s just one of those things that had been likely brewing for years,” she explained.

Initially, Grant Wahl’s brother Eric, suspected foul play by the Qataris given his brother’s pro-LGBT stance and criticisms of the World Cup host country’s treatment of foreign migrant workers. Grant Wahl was briefly denied entry to the U.S. Men’s National Team’s first World cup game for wearing a pro-LGBT rainbow shirt with a soccer ball in the middle.

“My name is Eric Wahl. I live in Seattle, Washington. I am Grant Wahl’s brother. I’m gay,” he said in a video posted to Instagram shortly after his brother’s death. “I’m the reason he wore the rainbow shirt to the World Cup. My brother was healthy. He told me he received death threats. I do not believe my brother just died. I believe he was killed. And I just beg for any help.”

As the New York Post reported, “Wahl has been an outspoken critic of the Qatari government and its hosting of the World Cup. On Thursday, he wrote ‘They just don’t care. Qatari World Cup organizers don’t even hide their apathy over migrant worker deaths, including the most recent one,’ in an article on his Substack.”

However, on Tuesday, Eric Wahl said he no longer believed foul play was a factor in his brother’s death.

Wahl’s autopsy was performed in the United States.