The young footballer, aged just 18 years at the time of his passing, was a central defender and was with Manchester City since he was 13.
On October 24th, 2020, young teenage footballer Jeremy Wisten committed suicide after Manchester City had released the player, sending shockwaves across the sporting world. The case is being investigated for a long time, and the coroner in charge of it has said that the footballer intended to kill himself.
“I find that on the balance of probabilities that Jeremy took his own life and intended to do so,”
coroner Zak Golombeck said.
Contrary to the inquest, his father Manila Wisten feels that Manchester City did not provide the right support for the youngster. He also denied the fact that his son was struggling in his career, and was a brilliant athlete right from the time he picked up this sport professionally.
After the injury that got him out of City’s academy, his family had urged him to concentrate on his education and chipped in with impressive numbers in the GSCE examinations. His father also added that the pandemic did not help him, and it was a mentally tough period for the youngster to tackle.
In 2018, Wisten picked up a horrific knee injury, and after five months of rehabilitation, he was released by the Premier League champions’ Youth Academy. He made many attempts to regain his spot later on, but remained unsuccessful at that endeavor. The inquest suggested that he found it difficult to see his teammates move up the ladder, and he eventually decided to take his life.
He was found dead at his family home. He had locked himself in his sister’s room and when his mother was concerned that he had not appeared for dinner, she went upstairs to find him unconscious. Despite the paramedics rushing to recover the young footballer, they could not save him.
It was also confirmed by his father that there was no change in his behavior the week before his death, which could’ve indicated something wrong. After his passing, City started spending a lot of time providing mental health screenings from top psychologists to help the youngsters in the youth academy.
