Goan football fans and Dempo players, on Monday, bid a tearful farewell to their teammate Cristiano Junior, whose body would be flown to his hometown of Brasillia, Brazil later in the day.
It was a solemn moment as the entire Dempo Club team gathered around the coffin for the last time even as a police band played on. Coach Armando Colaco and Dempo Group of Companies chairman Srinivas Dempo were present on the occasion.
The entire team, clad in their jerseys, then wrapped the Dempo flag around his coffin and carried it to the hearse van.
"Let Junior be your inspiration to play hard. He lived and died for the game, let him be the reason for you all to play to win," a Dempo official exhorted the team as they lifted the coffin.
Junior's body will be flown to Mumbai this afternoon en route to Brazil. Meanwhile, a CT scan was done on Junior's body at a city hospital yesterday after Dempo Sports Club recieved instructions from FIFA that such a test was necesarry in case of a player's death.
We had done the CT scan on Sunday at a private hospital after we recieved instructions to the effect from FIFA. The report will come in today and we shall then forward it to them," Dempo said.
When asked if he thought a second post-mortem would have been helpful, Dempo said "it is difficult to say but it was Julianna's wish that a second post-mortem be carried out and when the Goa government rejected her wish, she backed out of asking the Karnataka authorities. She wanted to take Junior home as soon as possible."
The striker met with a tragic on-field death on December 5 after winning the Federation Cup for Dempo Sports Club by scoring two goals.
He collapsed and died seconds after scoring his teams' second goal following a collision with Mohun Bagan goalkeeper Subrata Pal in the dying minutes of the final.
According to the final post-mortem report, Junior died of cardiac arrest following over-exertion and excitement.
