There is uncertainty throughout the country due to conflicting versions surrounding the Antioquia coach Pedro Sarmiento. Although since the morning several close sources confirmed his death, now Juan Carlos Sarmiento, brother of the helmsman, assures that he is still alive.
In an interview with EL COLOMBIANO, Juan Carlos assured:
“I am with Pedro in the room. He breathes. He has vital signs. We are in a process that will surely unfold as it should because the illness he has is very severe. But at the moment he has not died. He is alive. He has vital signs. He is not conscious, but he is breathing and his heart is beating. At this moment it is in a state of life and there is no consciousness. “It is something similar to a coma,” Juan Carlos told this newspaper.
“Pedro has been hospitalized for 5 months. After the bone marrow transfusion, he had a period of 15 days in which he was able to go home because he came out clean of the disease. There are some cancer cells that came out again. It seems that the chemotherapy, which eliminates those cells so that dominance can take effect, was resistant to his and accelerated the leukemia process. “They brought him to the hospital and he is in Pablo Tobón Uribe.”
However, throughout the day, Pamela Sarmiento, daughter of Pedro Sarmiento, has published constant photographs saying goodbye to her father, so much so that in one of them she says: “Let the earth tremble today because a king is leaving. The king of Colombian soccer. How proud to call you DAD.”
He even reposted a DIM publication in which they confirmed the death of the Antioquian.
Regarding those daughter’s publications, Juan Carlos Sarmiento told EL COLOMBIANO:
“It could have been an appreciation of her. I don’t know if he misunderstood the situation. The first information we had was that Pedro closed his eyes. We don’t know if they will open again. It could have been a wrong interpretation of her,” said Juan Carlos.
“The report of a death must be given by the clinic, who are the ones who have been keeping an eye on it. He hasn’t died yet. We understand that Pamela could have rushed, but no. We are all here. Here are Bolillo, Pacho, El Arriero, and we are talking to him constantly. We express our feelings of gratitude, which will always be the ones that prevail here. Pedro was always very generous. Now, counting all the people around him, he continues doing acts of kindness.”concluded Pedro Sarmiento’s brother.
The beloved Paisa helmsman was champion of the Colombian league with DIM in the remembered 2004 title, when he beat Atlético Nacional in the final of the first half of the year.
According to what they told this newspaper, the coach has been held for more than 15 days in a clinic in the city. The children and close friends were called to say goodbye on Tuesday night.
Sarmiento, 68, has spent his last months fighting polycythemia, a type of cancer that produces excess red blood cells, which was diagnosed in May 2024, when he was urgently admitted to the La Inmaculada clinic in Llanogrande, in Rionegro.
During that time, Pedro received the donation of platelets from the people, who attended en masse to contribute their grain of sand to the health of the Paisa coach, who also spent a few months, as coach in charge, of Atlético Nacional in 2022, when he replaced his brother-in-law Hernán Darío ‘El Arriero’ Herrera.
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The last team that Pedro coached was Once Caldas. The coach was in charge of the Manizales team in 2023. Due to the poor results that the team obtained, the leaders asked him for the position and left “El Arriero” as his replacement.
“La Dimayor, led by its president, Fernando Jaramillo, and the 36 affiliated clubs, regret the death of former player and coach Pedro Sarmiento. A hug of solidarity to all his family and friends,” wrote the governing body of Colombian football in a tweet that he published on his X account (formerly Twitter).
Sarmiento was also a Colombian soccer champion as a coach with Deportivo Cali, a team he directed between 2005 and 2006. In his career as a coach, the helmsman, born in Medellín on October 26, 1959, coached teams such as Santa Fe, Cúcuta Deportivo , Envigado, Águilas Doradas, Unión Magdalena.
He was also an assistant in América de Cali between 1992 and 1994, a few years after he retired from professional football (1989), as well as from the Colombian National Team in 2003.
For its part, Independiente Medellín, where Sarmiento was one of the coaches most loved by the fans, put its logo in black and white with the mourning ribbon, and trilled:
“The People’s Team deeply regrets the death of PEDRO SARMIENTO, champion coach with our institution. Brave and fighter, like the team he commanded to achieve a star that will be unforgettable in our history. We send our condolences to their families, whom we accompany in this moment of deep sadness. Our prayers are with you and the teacher’s memory will live forever in our hearts.”
