Ex-Villarreal B player Franco Acosta passes away in Uruguay

Sad news from Uruguay.....Franco Acosta has died in an accident near his home town of Montevideo. As reported here, he disappeared while trying to cross a stream—his body was recovered today. He was on an outing with his family, celebrating his 25th birthday, and tried to swim across the Pando creek, and was swept out to sea.

Acosta was an Uruguay youth international striker; in the U-20 South American youth tournament in January 2015, he scored two goals against Chile and overall, notched six goals in 14 matches for the U-20’s. This came on top of strong performances for the U-17 team, too.

There was competition for his signature, to be sure, but Villarreal reached a deal with Montevideo club Fénix and signed him for €1.5m in early 2015, signing him to a five-year contract. He was assigned to our B team, and scored two goals against Hercules in one of his first matches in the 2015-16 season, but didn’t play in the second half of the season, for whatever reason, and his last international callup appears to have been in the summer of 2015; he was never called up for the senior Celeste.

His only first-team appearance for Villarreal was an Emirates Cup friendly against Lyon in July 2015, where he came on as a substitute.

He didn’t feature much for the B team in the next two seasons either and was loaned to Racing Santander in 2018, where he hardly played; then was loaned to Uruguayan side Plaza Colonia. Villarreal released him at the start of 2020 and he was without a club until he signed with Atenas, another Uruguayan club, this fall.

Our sympathies are with his family, friends, and colleagues.