{"id":525140,"date":"2026-07-14T06:43:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T06:43:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/525140\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T06:43:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T06:43:09","slug":"fifa-world-cup-south-african-footballer-jayden-adams-partner-pays-tribute-after-his-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/525140\/","title":{"rendered":"Fifa World Cup: South African footballer Jayden Adams\u2019 partner pays tribute after his death"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cYou were not only the love of my life but also my greatest supporter and my best friend.<\/p>\n

\"SouthSouth African footballer Jayden Adams was found dead in Cape Town weeks after he helped his side make the knockout stages of the tournament. Photo \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cA part of my heart left with you, and I will carry your love with me forever.<\/p>\n

\u201cUntil we meet again, I\u2019ll miss you every single day.<\/p>\n

\u201cRest easy, my angel. I love you always and forever.\u201d<\/p>\n

The mid-fielder\u2019s father, Juanito Adams, told South African broadcaster eNCA the family were waiting on the results of an autopsy and had not made funeral plans.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs you all know, it was an untimely death<\/a>, the family is struggling to process it,\u201d Juanito Adams said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt won\u2019t be easy to carry on, people say it will become easier, but it won\u2019t.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou just learn to live with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jayden Adams played in the African nation\u2019s three group games, but didn\u2019t step on the pitch for their round of 32 loss to tournament co-hosts Canada<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After his death was announced, South African Sports Minister Gayton McKenzie said the country\u2019s football team had lost one of its \u201cbrightest young talents\u201d.<\/p>\n

A cause of death has not been released, but Cape Town central police told Associated Press an inquest was registered after the discovery of his body.<\/p>\n

\u201cCircumstances surrounding this incident are under investigation.\u201d <\/p>\n

Police said the body was found in Cape Town\u2019s Schotsche Kloof neighbourhood about 11am on Saturday, July 11.<\/p>\n

Tributes and moments of silence were held for Jayden at the England v Norway<\/a> and Argentina v Switzerland<\/a> quarter-final fixtures.<\/p>\n

Go all in to unlock every Fifa World Cup 2026 match with a TVNZ+ Event Pass<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cYou were not only the love of my life but also my greatest supporter and my best friend.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":525141,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[2948,10466,74,10542,634,36862,52168,293,15484,111,139,69,5502,20442,1240,213,20838,377],"class_list":["post-525140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-adams","tag-african","tag-after","tag-cup","tag-death","tag-fifa","tag-footballer","tag-his","tag-jayden","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-partner","tag-pays","tag-south","tag-sports","tag-tribute","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525140","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=525140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525140\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/525141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=525140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=525140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=525140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}