The Ministry of Internal Affairs reported that Pineida was the victim of two motorcyclists who drove up to a butcher shop and cold-bloodedly shot the defender, who had played 9 matches for the national team of Ecuador (the fullback played for the main team of the country from 2014 to 2022). Also, the bullets of the killers hit the women accompanying the football player, as a result of which Pineida’s wife later died, and the mother received a number of injuries, but fortunately survived.
Despite the fact that the local police soon announced the arrest of two suspects, who were quickly eliminated during the analysis of video recordings from the city’s outdoor surveillance cameras, Pineida’s murder gained widespread resonance in Ecuadorian society. The fact is that the football player was in the busy area of Guayaquil and was quite a famous person. Moreover, before the murder itself, Mario believed that he had become a victim of robbers, which is why he did not put up any resistance and did not try to escape from the criminals. The football player simply raised his hands, making it clear that he was letting the bandits choose themselves, but that was not what they were interested in: they literally nailed the defender of the local “Barcelona” – one of the most famous and popular soccer clubs in Ecuador.
Getty Images/Global Images Ukraine Pineida was a pupil of the Independiente del Valle academy, for which he later played 152 official matches. Since 2016, Mario has played for Barcelona from Guayaquil, becoming a true veteran and living legend of this club, as he played 224 matches for him. In 2022, Pineida tasted “legionary bread” when he played for the Brazilian “Fluminense” on loan (24 matches).
“Barcelona” Guayaquil and “Fluminense” quickly reacted to the murder of their ex-player, stressing that it is an irreparable loss for the entire football world. The Ecuadorian Football Federation did not stand aside, expressing its condolences to the family of the murdered man, as well as condemning the violence that has become a frequent phenomenon in this South American country against professional football players in recent months…
Pineida’s killing was the fifth directly related to soccer in Ecuador in 2025. Moreover, all crimes occurred in the period from September to December, that is, in fact, five victims were recorded by law enforcement agencies in just four months. This unprecedented number demonstrated the extent to which organized crime has spread in Ecuador, and especially in Guayaquil, the city where the criminogenic situation is the most complex.
Back in September, literally within a few days, three football players were shot dead in Ecuador: Maikol Valencia, Leandro Yepes and Jonathan Gonzalez. At the beginning of November, the country recorded the death of another player – 16-year-old midfielder Miguel Nazareno. Moreover, at first, the media reported that the young man was the victim of a random bullet while at home when a sudden shootout broke out. Nazareno, like three other soccer players killed in September, was initially believed to have been the victim of drug-trafficking gangs between Colombia and Peru. In recent years, Ecuador, which was once called almost the safest and most prosperous country in South America, has literally turned into a transit node for the supply of cocaine from Colombia to Peru, which in many ways has contributed to the incredible growth of crime and violations of the law within the country.
However, later, law enforcement agencies, paying particular attention to the figure of Jonathan Gonzalez, came to the conclusion that in the case of football players, it is hardly worth talking about drug-related murders. The fact is that the police found out: shortly before his death, Gonzalez received threats with demands to lose the match, which eventually ended in a draw. As a result, the investigators came to the conclusion that the four other victims were probably connected with underground football betting, at some point proving to be unpopular with those criminal elements responsible for organizing matches with fixed results.
In total, in 2025, four more cases of armed attacks on professional football players are known in Ecuador. Three of them survived the acute stress, actually remaining unharmed, and one was lucky to escape from the criminals. However, starting from autumn, bandits became more daring, literally starting to hunt football players, as a result of which there were as many as five victims…
In the case of Pineida, the investigation has not yet determined the key motives of the crime, but it has already established that the defender did not receive a salary from his club for six months, which could have prompted him to contact the local mafia, which controls the underground betting market on football matches.
The key problem in Ecuador today is that the government there is currently rather fragile and weak and constantly faces large-scale waves of social protests, finding itself unable to stop them or at least temporarily contain them. Against this background, a number of large cities, including Guayaquil, turned out to be literally centers of gangster clashes, and football players suddenly became representatives of a surreally dangerous profession, unable to get support and protection from the state.
Car bombings, gunfights and extortion have increased in the region: 1,900 murders were recorded from January to September, the highest rate in Ecuador. According to the Ecuadorian Organized Crime Observatory, the country is expected to have its most violent year on record with more than 9,000 murders. Last year, that figure was 7,063 violent deaths, and in 2023, a record 8,248. Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa has promised to fight criminal organizations that have expanded their activities in the country, with close ties and patronage from international drug cartels, but so far the authorities are not doing so well.
Getty Images/Global Images Ukraine Against this background, it should not be forgotten that the national soccer team of Ecuador qualified for the final part of the 2026 World Cup, which will be held on the fields of the USA, Canada and Mexico. Moreover, the “tricolor”, despite being deprived of three points for the falsification of Byron Castillo’s documents, finished quite confidently on the second line of the South American selection, ahead of only the current world champions, the Argentines.
In this regard, one can only hope that this time the World Cup will be a positive signal to raise the awareness of the international community about what is currently happening in Ecuador, making them think about concrete countermeasures that could be implemented, including at the level of FIFA. For now, against the background of what is happening in Ecuador, the main parallel comes to mind – 31 years ago at the World Cup in A tragic episode also took place in the USA, which soon led to the cut short life of the Colombian football player Andres Escobar. Then an own goal in a match against the hosts of the tournament turned out to be fatal for the player. And today, long before the start of the World Cup matches, Ecuadorian football is already experiencing tragic episodes one after another, and who knows whether the local mafia will not try to influence the results of the national team at the 2026 World Cup. After all, where the attention of the whole planet is focused, it will be possible to make a very solid extra income, regardless of anything. That is why the current state of affairs in Ecuador with the murders of football players cannot be ignored, although Gianni Infantino’s organization is unlikely to want to think about it and deal with it somehow. They have other concerns, you see – like how to get our leper neighbors from country 404 back on the world stage as soon as possible with new artificial tournaments…
Source: sport.ua