South African soccer player and Olympian Luke Fleurs was killed in a carjacking earlier this week, the Johannesburg-based Kaizer Chiefs Football Club announced on Thursday. He was 24.
Fleurs was shot and killed while he was waiting at a gas station in Johannesburg, a South African Police Service spokesperson told The Associated Press. The attackers fled with the player’s vehicle, authorities said.
The Kaizer Chiefs announced Fleurs’ death on its official Instagram page on Thursday, sharing a black-and-white photo of the soccer player that showed him smiling while holding up two peace signs.
“May his dear soul rest in peace,” the caption read.
Fleurs previously played for South African professional soccer club SuperSport United, which he joined in 2018. During his time with the team, he was awarded the distinction of the Young Player of the Season by the nation’s 2022 Premier Soccer League Awards.
He represented South Africa at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Luke Fleurs, who played on the South African national team, plays a soccer match at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Sapporo, Japan.
via Associated Press
The Kaizer Chiefs announced in October 2023 that it had signed Fleurs to join its defensive unit.
The defender celebrated the achievement on Instagram, writing “dreams do come true.”
SuperSport United CEO Stanley Matthews mourned Fleurs’ death on X, formerly Twitter, on Thursday.
“He was a wonderfully talented footballer and a very sad and painfully premature loss to the PSL football family,” he said in a statement. “May His Soul Rest in Peace.”
On Thursday, the Kaizer Chiefs held a moment of silence and a prayer session in honor of Fleurs, the team announced on Instagram Friday.
“Rest in peace Luke,” the post’s caption read.
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