{"id":521657,"date":"2026-07-12T01:08:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T01:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/521657\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T01:08:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T01:08:10","slug":"south-african-world-cup-midfielder-jayden-adams-dead-at-age-25","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/521657\/","title":{"rendered":"South African World Cup midfielder Jayden Adams dead at age 25"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  [&amp;_p]:tit-sub-xl tit-sub-xl md:[&amp;_p]:d-tit-sub-xl md:d-tit-sub-xl mb-[1.3rem]\">South Africa midfielder Jayden Adams, who played at the World Cup, has died. He was 25.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">His death was confirmed by Gayton McKenzie, South Africa\u2019s minister of sport, arts and culture, in a statement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">&#8220;It is with profound shock and a heavy heart that I have learnt of the passing of Jayden Adams, midfielder for Mamelodi Sundowns and Bafana Bafana, at the age of 25,&#8221; McKenzie posted on X.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">&#8220;South African football has lost one of its brightest young talents, and our nation mourns alongside his family, his team-mates and the millions of supporters.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">Adams helped <a href=\"https:\/\/www.1news.co.nz\/2026\/06\/25\/south-africa-into-first-world-cup-knockouts-with-win-over-south-korea\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">South Africa reach the World Cup knockout stage for the first time.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">Further details of his death were not given.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">&#8220;The cause of Jayden\u2019s passing has not yet been confirmed,&#8221; McKenzie said. &#8220;I wish to appeal to members of the media and the public to exercise restraint and compassion, and to refrain from speculation.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">A moment of silence in honour of Adams was held ahead of the World Cup quarterfinal between Norway and England in Miami Gardens, Florida.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">Adams started in South Africa&#8217;s first Group A games against Mexico and Czech Republic. McKenzie said Adams played the second game only hours after learning that his grandmother had died. He came on as a second-half substitute in the third game against South Korea.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">Adams played several seasons for Stellenbosch before joining Mamelodi Sundowns last year. He helped the club win the CAF (African) Champions League this year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">&#8220;Death has cruelly stolen one of our own. It has robbed our nation of a remarkable footballer,&#8221; the South African Football Players Union posted on X. &#8220;We will forever remember his humility, his extraordinary talent and the pride with which he represented South Africa. Rest in eternal peace, Jayden. You will never be forgotten.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and the South African Federation of Trade Unions also expressed their condolences.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">Watch all matches at the World Cup with an event pass on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tvnz.co.nz\/?gclsrc=aw.ds&amp;gad_source=1&amp;gad_campaignid=23748367673&amp;gbraid=0AAAAADhTXJ5km7xu_xfoqaGXNsKWhJpIS&amp;gclid=CjwKCAjw08fSBhA7EiwAfbQTsCASqC6nUAO_AT1xU1a4VUupP4PZrIvXuDLscfplW-O4YguSoH_53hoCjlwQAvD_BwE\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">TVNZ+<\/a> | All Whites games free-to-view on TVNZ1 and TVNZ+<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"South Africa midfielder Jayden Adams, who played at the World Cup, has died. He was 25. His death&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":521658,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1081,2966,111,139,69,97379,213],"class_list":["post-521657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-accident","tag-fifa-world-cup","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sport-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521657","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=521657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521657\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/521658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=521657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=521657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=521657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}