Cameroonian soccer player Albert Ebosse is dead after being hit with a projectile thrown by fans after a game in Algeria, where he played.
Ebosse was 24 years old, and had played as a striker for JS Kabylie there since 2013, after a stint in Malaysia. He was the league's top scorer last season. (Video via Sky News)
That language — a thrown projectile, or object — is being used by most outlets, and there's no clear description about what exactly was thrown.
While soccer fans throwing things at players is hardly rare — England winger Theo Walcott was pelted with coins while being stretchered off during a game earlier this year — those things usually aren't big enough to do much damage, let alone kill someone.
Flares may be amongst the most commonly thrown dangerous objects at soccer games. As Yardbarker notes, an incident involving one occurred earlier this year during a match in Cyprus.
But soccer violence in Algeria isn't exactly unusual either, as The Economist points out, a police officer was killed at a game just two years ago after fans charged the field.
Ebosse had played for the Cameroonian national team, despite spending most of his career in the country's domestic league, and outside the top leagues in Europe.
Ebosse's team announced on the club's website that a thorough investigation into Ebosse's death will now be conducted, and that his official cause of death was head trauma.
As France 24writes, on top of the tragedy of Ebosse's killing, his death also mars Algeria's campaign to replace Libya as host country of the 2017 African Cup of Nations.
This video contains an image from Getty Images and Sprott Money / CC BY 2.0
