Mario Pineida, the Ecuador international defender, was killed in a drive-by shooting in Guayaquil on Wednesday evening.
The 33-year-old Barcelona de Guayaquil player was standing outside a shop in the Samanes district when two assailants on motorbikes opened fire.
His mother and another woman were also present during the attack. One other person died in the incident, whilst a third victim sustained injuries.
Ecuador's Interior Ministry has confirmed the footballer's death and dispatched a specialist police unit to investigate.
Ecuador star Mario Pineida was killed in a drive-by shooting
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The coastal city lies approximately 165 miles southwest of the capital Quito.
Pineida earned nine caps for his country between 2015 and 2021, featuring at both the 2017 and 2021 Copa América tournaments.
His final international appearance came as a late substitute against Brazil during the group stages of the latter competition.
The defender launched his professional career at Independiente del Valle in 2010, spending five years with the club before transferring to Barcelona SC in 2016.
During nine seasons with the Guayaquil outfit, he claimed two domestic league championships.
Mario Pineida earned nine caps for his country between 2015 and 2021
|GETTY
A loan move to Brazilian giants Fluminense followed in 2022, with a further spell at El Nacional also forming part of his career.
Ecuador is on course to record its bloodiest year in history, with projections from the Ecuadorian Observatory of Organized Crime indicating more than 9,000 homicides by year's end.
This represents a stark escalation from 7,063 violent deaths in 2024 and the previous record of 8,248 set in 2023.
Guayaquil has emerged as the nation's most dangerous city, registering 1,900 murders between January and September alone—the highest toll anywhere in the country.
President Daniel Noboa has vowed to confront the criminal organisations that have expanded their reach across Ecuadorian territory, operating in conjunction with international drug trafficking cartels.
Pineida's death marks the latest in a troubling pattern of footballers falling victim to Ecuador's violence epidemic.
In November, a 16-year-old player from Independiente del Valle was killed by a stray bullet, also in Guayaquil.
Just two months prior, three second-division players—Maicol Valencia and Leandro Yepez of Exapromo Costa, along with Jonathan González of 22 de Junio—lost their lives to gunshot wounds.
Both Independiente del Valle and Fluminense paid tribute to their former player on social media. Barcelona SC expressed that the news left everyone at the institution "deeply dismayed."
The Ecuadorian Football Federation issued a statement condemning the violence and extending condolences to Pineida's family.