Ecuadorian international footballer Mario Pineida was shot dead on Wednesday in Guayaquil, a port city in the South American country, according to his current team, Barcelona Sporting Club.
In a publication on his official account of the social network ‘X’ (formerly Twitter), Barcelona … SC writes that “it regrets to inform, with deep pain, that it has been officially informed of the death of our player Mario Pineida, an event which occurred following an attack against him”. Pineida’s death was confirmed by the Interior Ministry.
Initially, some local media reported that the armed attack was carried out by two people who “opened fire on him, his mother and his wife, who were also killed.”
Subsequently, both the images from an exterior surveillance camera of the company where the footballer was and the statement from Pineida’s wife clarified this information.
Images from the moment of the armed attack against footballer Mario Pineida and his partner of Peruvian nationality, Gissella Fernández, while they were shopping in a butcher’s shop in Samanes 4, north of Guayaquil. pic.twitter.com/QWzeorwLGX
– Tere Menéndez (@TMT30_) December 18, 2025
“Given the comments and images that indicate that Mario Pineida’s wife was also murdered, I respectfully and forcefully state that this information is completely false. His wife is me, Ana Aguilar, mother of his three children, and I am alive,” the aforementioned statement read.
According to ‘Primicias’, “at the time of the attack, the player was with two women. One of them (apparently the Ecuadorian player’s current partner) also died. And the other, who would be Pineida’s mother, survived and is hospitalized.
Ecuador, and particularly Guayaquil, has become a hotbed of gang violence linked to drug trafficking and several footballers have been the target of attacks in recent months.
Since the start of 2025, at least five footballer assassinations have been recorded in Ecuador, but Pineida’s is the first of a player in the Ecuadorian First Division and member of one of the biggest clubs in the country, accustomed to winning national titles and participating in the Copa Libertadores.
The 33-year-old left-back was shot dead in broad daylight and on a public road in a busy neighborhood of Guayaquil, Ecuador’s most populous city and the epicenter of the country’s violence crisis, which ranks first in Latin America in terms of homicides, rising from 6 to around 50 per 100,000 inhabitants in seven years.
He arrived in 2016. He made history forever. 💛
2 titles. 2 Libertadores semi-finals.
With determination, dedication and love for yellow.
Mario won to be an eternal part of Idol history.
For everything and more, we will always remember you Marito pic.twitter.com/stLzxUkP2s
– BARCELONA SC (@BarcelonaSC) December 18, 2025
“El Pitbull” Pineida started his professional career at Independiente del Valle and since 2016 he was part of Barcelona, with whom he won two Ecuadorian championships and twice reached the semi-finals of the Copa Libertadores, while in 2022 he played on loan at the Brazilian Fluminense and in 2024 at El Nacional.
The player even wore the jersey of the Ecuadorian national team, with which he played in the qualifications for the World Cup and the Copa América.
In September, three Ecuadorian second division players were murdered, with one suspected of being linked to sports betting. A month later, local footballer Bryan Angula was shot and injured.
Once one of the safest countries in Latin America, Ecuador has become a key hub for the transit of cocaine between major producers in Colombia and Peru and consumers around the world.
Car bombings, shootings and extortions have increased in Guayaquil, which recorded 1,900 murders between January and September, the highest number in Ecuador.
About The Author
