{"id":468799,"date":"2026-05-27T02:15:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T02:15:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/468799\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T02:15:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T02:15:10","slug":"victor-udoh-former-southampton-and-royal-antwerp-forward-dies-at-21","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/468799\/","title":{"rendered":"Victor Udoh: Former Southampton and Royal Antwerp forward dies at 21"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-testid=\"wcl-news-perex\" itemprop=\"description\">English Championship side Southampton have led tributes following the passing of their former academy player Victor Udoh.<\/p>\n<p>The 21-year-old Nigerian, who represents Czech second-tier side <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flashscore.com\/team\/ceske-budejovice\/bJ4XSQ6B\/\" data-analytics-element=\"ARTICLE_TEXT_LINK\" data-analytics-alias=\"internal\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Dynamo Ceske Budejovice<\/a>, was confirmed dead on Tuesday in Abuja while on holiday following the completion of the 2025\/26 campaign.<\/p>\n<p>Although the cause of death has not been confirmed, multiple sources in the media have speculated that he died of food or alcohol poisoning.<\/p>\n<p>After learning about his demise, the Saints consoled the player\u2019s family.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are devastated by the tragic passing of former player\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.flashscore.com\/player\/udoh-victor\/AymlPbCO\/\" data-analytics-element=\"ARTICLE_TEXT_LINK\" data-analytics-alias=\"internal\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Victor Udoh<\/a> at the age of 21. The thoughts of everyone at #SaintsFC go out to Victor\u2019s loved ones at this extremely difficult time,\u201d the English side wrote in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>Also, his former Belgian side, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flashscore.com\/team\/antwerp\/rVpPxw8H\/\" data-analytics-element=\"ARTICLE_TEXT_LINK\" data-analytics-alias=\"internal\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Royal Antwerp<\/a>, reacted to the devastating news that read: \u201cWith great dismay, RAFC has learned of the passing of former player Victor Udoh.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur thoughts are with Victor\u2019s family, friends, and loved ones. We wish them much strength, support, and warmth during this particularly difficult time. Rest in peace, Victor.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Born in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria, Udoh began his career at Hypebuzz before moving to Belgium to continue his football development at Royal Antwerp\u2019s youth squad.<\/p>\n<p>Having impressed in the youth team, he was promoted to the senior team and subsequently made his debut for the Belgian Pro League side at 19. He went on to make 28 appearances for the Reds but failed to find the net.<\/p>\n<p>Even at that, his talent did not go unnoticed by English side <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flashscore.com\/team\/southampton\/WdKOwxDM\/\" data-analytics-element=\"ARTICLE_TEXT_LINK\" data-analytics-alias=\"internal\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Southampton<\/a>, signing him in January 2025 in a three-and-a-half-year deal, and he was sent to the club\u2019s development team.<\/p>\n<p>Following his inability to break into the club\u2019s first team, he left by mutual consent to join Czech second division side Dynamo Ceske Budejovice in October 2025 on a three-year deal that would keep him at the club until 2028.<\/p>\n<p><img crossorigin=\"anonymous\" class=\"wcl-image_vG4MA\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" fetchpriority=\"auto\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/77f4edee-493b-45e2-b24b-0d9a1e05766a.jpg\" alt=\"Shina Oludare\" title=\"Shina Oludare\" itemprop=\"image\"\/>Shina OludareFlashscore<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"English Championship side Southampton have led tributes following the passing of their former academy player Victor Udoh. The&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":468800,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-468799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=468799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468799\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/468800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}