{"id":521617,"date":"2026-07-12T00:32:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T00:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/521617\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T00:32:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T00:32:12","slug":"south-african-world-cup-footballer-jayden-adams-dies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/521617\/","title":{"rendered":"South African World Cup footballer Jayden Adams dies"},"content":{"rendered":"

South Africa international midfielder Jayden Adams, who featured in all three of his side’s group stage games at the 2026 World Cup<\/a>, has died, the country’s sports ministry has revealed.<\/p>\n

No cause of death was given.<\/p>\n

Adams, 25, started the Group A fixtures against Mexico and the Czech Republic, and came off the bench in the 1-0 win over South Korea that earned the side a first ever place in the knockout rounds, where they were beaten by Canada.<\/p>\n

He played for the Pretoria-based Mamelodi Sundowns in South Africa, helping them to the African Champions League title in the 2025\/26 season.<\/p>\n

“South African football has lost a gifted player, a proud servant of the game and a young life that still had so much to offer,” the South African Football Players’ Union, an official body for players in the country, said in a statement.<\/p>\n

South Africa’s minister of sport Gayton McKenzie also expressed his condolences.<\/p>\n

“Our nation mourns alongside his family, his teammates and the millions of supporters who watched him grow from a promising academy prospect into a full Bafana Bafana international,” McKenzie said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Sundowns and the South African Football Association did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.<\/p>\n

Adams came through the youth development structures at Stellenbosch FC and joined Sundowns in January 2025.<\/p>\n

He made his international debut against Mozambique in 2022 and won 13 caps, scoring two goals, both in qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"South Africa international midfielder Jayden Adams, who featured in all three of his side’s group stage games at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":521618,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-521617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=521617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521617\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/521618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=521617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=521617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=521617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}