{"id":5603,"date":"2026-06-26T06:52:50","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T06:52:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/?p=5603"},"modified":"2026-06-26T06:52:50","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T06:52:50","slug":"kenzo-kies-french-footballer-dies-aged-21-after-drowning-during-heatwave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/?p=5603","title":{"rendered":"Kenzo Kies: French footballer dies, aged 21, after drowning during heatwave"},"content":{"rendered":"


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French footballer Kenzo Kies has died from drowning in the Rhone river.<\/b><\/p>\n

Kies, 21, who played for Guingamp in Ligue 2, was in a critical condition when he was pulled from the water by firefighters on Monday, and later died in hospital.<\/p>\n

Kies and three friends entered the river near Lyon to escape the blistering heat in France, with temperatures reaching 40C in parts of the country this week. <\/p>\n

Three people were pulled to safety by emergency services but Kies was the last to be found.<\/p>\n

Forty people have drowned in heatwave-related deaths in France<\/a> since last Thursday, Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said earlier this week.<\/p>\n

Kies was part of the youth set-ups at Lyon and Saint-Etienne before joining Guingamp last year, where he was playing in the reserve team.<\/p>\n

Guingamp paid tribute to Kies on X, writing: “Guingamp has had the sorrow of learning of the death of Kenzo Kies, a young player with the club.” <\/p>\n

The club said they would offer their “full support” to Kies’ family during this “painful ordeal”. <\/p>\n

A Saint-Etienne statement read: “The Green Generation is in mourning. A resident of the Robert-Herbin Sports Centre for seven years, a talented player and discreet young man appreciated by all, Kenzo Kies has lost his life in dramatic circumstances.<\/p>\n

“Saint-Etienne extends its most sincere condolences to his loved ones as well as to those – teammates and coaches alike – who shared a piece of his journey. Kenzo, in the corridors of L’Etrat, no one will ever forget you.”<\/p>\n

Saint-Etienne told BBC Sport that plans are underway to pay tribute to Kies at the Geoffroy-Guichard Stadium at the start of next season.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

French footballer Kenzo Kies has died from drowning in the Rhone river. Kies, 21, who played for Guingamp in Ligue…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5604,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5603\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}