LISBON : Hungarian striker Miklos Feher became the second international footballer in the last seven months to die during a game when he collapsed after being yellow-carded while playing for Benfica.
The 24-year-old Feher, who had come on as a substitute after 60 minutes, was rushed to hospital but died shortly after.
He had just been sanctioned in injury-time for time-wasting after Portuguese giants Benfica had taken a late 1-0 lead over Vitoria Guimaraes in a league match.
Football fans watched on television and at the stadium in Guimaraes, located some 320 kilometres (180 miles) north of Lisbon, as doctors tried to save an apparently unconscious Feher as he lay on the muddy field.
His Benfica team-mates, including coach Jose Antonio Camacho, wept or prayed as they paced the pitch in the driving rain before an ambulance arrived nine minutes after Feher collapsed to take the player to hospital where he was declared dead at 11:10 p.m. (2310 GMT).
Benfica and Guimaraes said in a joint statement Feher was treated for a heart attack for about 90 minutes before he died.
Doctors at the hospital in Guimaraes are performing an autopsy to determine the exact cause of death.
After the autopsy is completed, Feher's body will be taken to Lisbon where it will be available for viewing at Benfica's new 65,000-seat stadium where fans have been laying candles and flowers since the news of his death.
Feher's parents, brother and fiance arrived in Portugal on Monday and will accompany his body back to Hungary where the player's funeral will take place on Wednesday.
The player was reportedly set to get married in June. Benfica said in a statement it would rent a plane to take the entire squad to Hungary for the funeral.
"He was very well-liked, very polite," Feher's manager Jose Veiga told Portuguese radio TSF. "He had absolutely no malice."
The Portuguese Football Federation said there would be a minute of silence at the start of next weekend's league games in honour of the player, who had lived in Portugal since he was 18.
His sudden death dominated newspaper headlines in Portugal on Monday, with all three sports dailies featuring front pages draped in mourning black.
"Death on live television," the daily Diario de Noticias said above a photo of Feher as he fell, while sports daily A Bola featured a photo of the player smiling just seconds before he collapsed above the headline: "The last smile of Miklos Feher." (at least he left the world with a smile)
Asked by reporters about the amount of time it took for the ambulance to arrive to take the player off the pitch, Portuguese secretary of state for sport Herminio Loureiro said everything was done to save his life.
"The information I have at the moment indicates everything was done, and I mean everything, at the hospital and stadium to avoid this tragic end," he said.
Feher's death was similar to that of Cameroon midfielder Marc-Vivien Foe who died in June after collapsing during a Confederations Cup semi-final against Colombia in France. He was suffering from a heart condition.
Feher moved to Portugal in the 1998/98 season from Hungary's Gyor Eto to play for FC Porto.
He was signed by Benfica in 2002 after loan spells at Salgueiros and Braga and had scored seven goals for Hungary in 25 international matches.
Feher during international duty with Hungary
RIP Feher :down: