"Paulão felt ill on Saturday in Benguela, when he was leaving Namibe for Luanda. He received first aid and was then urgently brought to Luanda, to the General Hospital of Luanda, where he died on Monday. Since the day of his death we have been waiting for the medical report, which indicated that Paulão died due to severe malaria", said the same sources.
The former footballer, who died on Tuesday, was honored on Friday at the Cidadela stadium in Luanda, before the transfer to the Namibe province, where Paulão will be buried on Saturday.
In June 2021, the minister of health Silvia Lutukuta revealed that Angola registered, between January and May 2021, 3,799,458 cases of malaria and 5573 deaths. Almost 3.8 million cases of malaria have been registered this year in Angola, until that period.
Born in the Namibe province, Paulo Alves wore the jersey of the Angolan national soccer team on 42 occasions between 1989 and 2001, and several times he wore the captain's armband.
At the beginning of his career, Paulão represented the Angolan team of 1.º de Maio de Benguela, making his debut in Portugal with Vitória de Setúbal in 1994/95.
Two seasons with Benfica followed, before stints with Académica and Sporting de Espinho, returning in 2003 to Angola, where he was still linked to Petro de Luanda and ASA.
