Football
Associated Press 8y

El Salvador veteran Alfredo Pacheco shot dead - authorities

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador -- Alfredo Pacheco, El Salvador's most-capped player, was shot and killed by gunmen on Sunday, according to authorities in the Central American nation.

El Salvador's Attorney General's Office and its National Police said unidentified assailants aboard a vehicle approached Pacheco and some of his friends in the city of Santa Ana early on Sunday and opened fire.

Pacheco was killed, while two people accompanying him were injured. Police did not provide a motive for his killing.

"The Attorney General's office in Santa Ana processed the crime scene of the murder of Alfredo Pacheco at 3:30 a.m. in a petrol station," a statement said, according to Reuters.

Pacheco, who was 33, represented his country 86 times between 2002 and 2013. The left-back spent a decade with club FAS in his hometown of Santa Ana, during which he went out on loan for a short spell to New York Red Bulls, before returning to his homeland to play for Aguila and Isidro Metapan.

A statement from the Salvadorian football federation (FESFUT) said: "The Salvadoran Football Federation laments the passing of former player Alfredo Pacheco. We share in the pain and say a prayer for his grieving family."

Pacheco was one of 22 El Salvador internationals who were banned for life by FESFUT in 2013 for match-fixing -- a punishment ratified by world football's governing body, FIFA. 

Earlier in December, Honduras midfielder Arnold Peralta was shot and killed in his home town of La Ceiba.

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