Quevin Castro, a 25-year-old midfielder who once played for West Bromwich Albion, collapsed during a pre-season friendly in Portugal on Saturday, August 22, and died a short time later.
He was on the field for fourth-tier Real Sport Clube in a warm-up match against top-flight Estrela da Amadora at the Estadio das Seixas in Malveira, just outside Lisbon. He went down in the opening minutes, roughly 10 minutes into the game.
Medical teams from both clubs rushed onto the pitch. A defibrillator was used in an attempt to revive him. Emergency crews then took him to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The Lisbon Football Association confirmed he had “passed away this morning” during the friendly.
The game stopped and never restarted
The match was meant to be routine. It was one of Real Sport Clube’s first pre-season fixtures, a tune-up before the new campaign in the Campeonato de Portugal, the country’s fourth tier. Then Castro fell.
He became unconscious early in the fixture, and staff from both sides reached him within seconds. Play halted entirely and the match was later called off.
Born in Portugal, raised in a small English town
Castro was born in Lisbon on August 16, 2001, to a Santomean father and an Angolan mother. He had turned 25 just six days before he died.
He grew up in Thetford, a market town in Norfolk, England, and went to The Thetford Academy. His full name was Quevin Moises Cachicote da Rocha de Castro. Football ran through the whole family. His brothers Rudy, Valter Rocha, and Aires all played the game too.
His start was the kind most players never climb out of. He played non-league ball for Mildenhall Town, Thetford Town, Norwich CBS, Leiston and Bury Town, and had trial spells at Ipswich Town, Sutton United, Arsenal and Chelsea. West Brom was the club that gave him his first professional contract.
Three senior games for West Brom
Castro signed a two-year deal with EFL Championship side West Bromwich Albion in the summer of 2021 after impressing on trial. His senior debut came fast. On August 25, 2021, he started in a 6-0 EFL Cup second-round loss to Arsenal.
His first league appearance came on February 28, 2022, when he came off the bench in a 2-0 Championship defeat to Swansea City. He came off the bench again at Reading that April. Three senior games in all.
To get minutes, he went out on loan. He went to Burton Albion on a season-long loan in July 2022, ended by mutual consent that September, then joined Notts County on loan days later. He spent the rest of the season on loan at Gateshead. His West Brom contract expired in 2023.
The long road back to Portugal
After West Brom, Castro kept grinding through England’s lower divisions. He signed for York City in 2023 and spent part of that season on loan at King’s Lynn Town, then played for Chippenham Town, Cambridge City and Eastbourne Borough. He made six appearances for Eastbourne last season, scoring three.
This summer he made the move that took his career full circle, signing for Real Sport Clube, a side known locally as Real Massama, to help them compete in Portugal’s fourth tier. He had been back in the country he was born in for a matter of weeks when he collapsed.
It was a career built on stubborn persistence. He never got the flashy transfer or the big contract. He kept finding another club, another chance, another season, from English non-league fields all the way to the EFL Championship and back home again.
West Brom honored him in the 25th minute
West Bromwich Albion said it was “devastated to learn of the untimely passing of our former player Quevin Castro, aged just 25.” The club then found a way to make its tribute personal.
Supporters held a period of applause in the 25th minute of Sunday’s Championship fixture against Burnley, which Albion won 3-1. The club said James Morrison’s players would wear black armbands.
“The thoughts of everyone at Albion are with Quevin’s loved ones at this desperately sad time,” the club said. The statement closed: “Rest in peace, Quevin.”
Grief on both sides of the field
Real Sport Clube spoke about him as more than an athlete. “Quevin Castro was far more than a player, he was a member of our family, leaving a mark on all those who had the privilege of knowing him, both on and off the pitch,” the club said.
The opposition mourned him too. Estrela da Amadora, the top-flight club Real were facing that morning, sent its “most heartfelt condolences” to Castro’s family, friends, and “the entire Real Massama structure.” The club added: “Our thoughts are with all those close to him. Rest in peace, Quevin.”
The Lisbon Football Association, the regional governing body, stepped in with an official statement of its own. “To the family, friends, and the affiliated club, we extend our deepest condolences during this tragic time for Portuguese football,” it said.
What officials have and haven’t said
The cause of death has not been confirmed. No medical detail has been released by either club, by the Lisbon Football Association or by his family.
What is confirmed is the timeline. Castro collapsed early in the friendly, staff tried to revive him on the field with a defibrillator, and he was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead. Both Real Sport Clube and the Lisbon Football Association announced his death the same day.
His death landed hard in two countries at once. He was a Portuguese kid raised in England, a player who spent years in the lower divisions before going home. The clubs he passed through, from small English towns to Lisbon, all posted the same kind of message over the weekend.
He was 25 years old, six days past his birthday, and weeks into what should have been the next chapter of his career in Portugal. The applause in the 25th minute at The Hawthorns on Sunday was the closest thing to a goodbye that many of the people who followed his long, winding career could give him.
