Seldom though could Espanyol have suffered so cruel a twist of fate than the club losing its club captain Dani Jarque recently to a heart attack.  A central defender, Jarque had made his Espanyol debut against RC Recreativo de Huelva on 20 October 2002.  He then went on to make 173 league appearances for the Barcelona club.   In 2006 he won the Copa del Rey and during the following season missed out on a UEFA Cup winner’s medal after defeat in a magnificent final to Sevilla.   Internationally,  Jarque was also part of the Spain team that triumphed at the 2002 UEFA European Under-19 Championship in Norway.

During a pre-season training camp in summer 2009, not one day before his side were due to take on Bologna in a friendly, Jarque took ill with a heart attack at the team base in Coverciano near Firenze. Despite the best efforts of club and Italian medical staff to revive him, the captain passed away shortly afterwards.   He was found after teammates realised he had not turned up for a team meal.   The passing was all the more tragic given that Jarque had recently been awarded the captaincy of Espanyol by coach Mauricio Pochettino and was looking forward to leading his side out at their new Cornellá El-Prat Stadium in the forthcoming 2009-2010 season. He had inherited the captaincy from the great club legend Raul Tamudo some time earlier.

Some 10,000 Espanyol fans turned up at the new ground when the announcement of his death was made.  A memorial was made at gate 21 in fitting tribute to the shirt number worn by the young Catalan. The tributes did not end with memories and dedications off the field, as in England Cesc Fabregas, a former team mate of Jarque in the Spanish youth teams, dedicated his second goal in Arsenal's 6-1 Premier League over Everton win to the player raising a shirt with 21 and Jarque's name on it.

Football has  had its share of tragedy with footballers sudden deaths in recent years and the list is growing. From Foe at the Confederations Cup through to to Phil O’Donnell in Scotland, football fans in many countries have felt the pain of loss.  In the most brutel twist of fate of all,  it means that of the 22 players who kicked off the 2007 UEFA Cup final in Glasgow only 20 of them remain alive with Jarque’s passing compounding the loss of Sevilla defender Antonio Puerta who scored the winning spot kick at Hampden but died only two months later.