At a soccer academy in the UK, one of the 12 miraculous lads who endured nearly three weeks trapped in a cave in Thailand in 2018 has passed away. According to the BBC, his death was caused by a “accident” linked to a brain injury.
Whether it occurred on or off the soccer field is unknown to the authorities.
After their remarkable escape from a flooded cave on June 23, 2018, Duangpetch Promthep, 18, better known to his pals as Dom, became leadership of the Wild Boar boys soccer team and became its public face. In August 2022, he posted on social media, “Today my goal has come true,” after announcing that he had been accepted to the Brooke House College Football Academy in Leicestershire. In Britain, I’ll be a student of football. I want to express my gratitude to everyone who helped with the study abroad scholarship. I pledge to put in a lot of effort in my studies.
The soccer player’s Zico Foundation, whose organisation provided a scholarship to Promthep’s soccer academy, revealed the teen’s passing on Facebook six months later.
When rescuers finally located the missing team and their coach after a violent rainfall inundated the Tham Luang cave, forcing the group lower underground where they survived in a dark pocket of air, Promthep, who turned 13 inside the cave, was one of the first faces they saw. Before divers discovered the squad, more than 10,000 people spent nine days searching the region and maze of underground tunnels.
Their bicycles at the cave’s entrance came to represent the story. To utilise as little oxygen as possible, the 25-year-old instructor guided them in meditation to maintain their composure. Once they were located, it took rescuers another week to come up with a rescue strategy, during which one rescuer—a Thai Navy seal—died. Before they could be rescued, the boys were handed letters from their families and encouraged to reply.
“I’m alright, just that the weather may be a little bit too cold, but don’t worry,” Promthep wrote to his parents. “Don’t forget my birthday party.”
The lads were eventually put to sleep with ketamine and taken out one at a time. Their story has been told in numerous novels and a Netflix series.
Promthep’s mother lamented his passing in the Wat Doi Wao temple in Chiang Rai, Thailand, where he was raised. According to ABC News Australia, several of the boys who were saved along with him left memorial letters.
“You told me to wait and see you play for the national team, I always believe that you would do it,” wrote Prachak Sutham, a fellow survivor of the cave. “When we met the last time before you left for England, I even jokingly told you that when you come back, I would have to ask for your autograph. Sleep well, my dear friend. We will always have 13 of us together.”
