Former Real Madrid president, Lorenzo Sanz, dies of coronavirus

Former Real Madrid president, Lorenzo Sanz, died on Saturday after he was diagnosed with coronavirus and hospitalised.

He was 76.

According to his family, Sanz had been in intensive care since the beginning of the week while being treated for the virus, the BBC reported.

Sanz presided over Madrid from 1995 until 2000, leading the club to two European titles, a Spanish league title and a Spanish Super Cup title.

Under Sanz, Madrid ended a 32-year drought in Europe by winning its seventh European trophy in 1998.

“My father has just died,” Sanz’s son Lorenzo Duran wrote on his Twitter handle on Saturday.

The former Madrid president is the second sports personality to die of COVID-19 in Spain, the second worst-hit country in Europe after Italy.

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Spanish football coach Francisco Garcia had died from the disease few days ago – aged just 21.

Spain saw a huge leap of almost 5,000 infections in the past 24 hours, placing it in third place in the global ranking of infections behind China and Italy.

Health authorities said on Saturday that the number of people who have tested positive for the pathogen reached 24,926, up from 19,980 the day before.

About 1,326 people have now died of the disease in the European country up from 1,002 on Friday.