Federico Valverde did more than post condolences after the deadliest Spanish train crash in more than a decade.
The Real Madrid captain used his Instagram account, followed by 21.9 million people, to reshare photographs of passengers still unaccounted for after two trains collided near the Toledo-province village of Urda on Wednesday morning. Alongside the missing persons appeals, his stories carried the phone numbers families were being asked to call, and the addresses of blood donation points opened by hospitals across Toledo and the wider Castilla-La Mancha region.
“As captain of Real Madrid, I put myself at your disposal to help in whatever is necessary and to collaborate in sharing the information that can help locate the missing persons,” he wrote in the Instagram post that framed the appeals, which Uruguayan outlet Futeros reproduced in full.
The gesture stood out next to the standard footballer tribute. Valverde’s account effectively became a relay for the regional authorities, whose own messages reach a far smaller audience than a Real Madrid captain with more than 20 million followers.
Read also: “One of the main reasons”: Xabi Alonso makes Florian Wirtz admission ahead of Liverpool clash
A control-system failure near Urda
The crash happened at 8:53 a.m. on Wednesday between the Toledo-province towns of Urda and Los Yébenes, CBS News reported. A Renfe AVE train travelling from Madrid to Seville with 397 passengers on board struck the rear of a stationary Iryo service carrying 147 passengers, derailing two carriages down an embankment.
Transport minister Óscar Puente described the order that sent the AVE back onto the line as “inexplicable”. The signaling system across a 63-kilometer stretch had failed around 8:30 a.m. and halted six trains, before the central command centre cleared one of them to run on at full speed, striking the stopped Iryo moments later at speeds officials put as high as 200 km/h.
At least 68 people were killed and 58 remained in hospital treatment on Wednesday evening, Al Jazeera reported. Prime minister Pedro Sánchez declared three days of national mourning running from Thursday to Saturday.
Spanish football paused
The Royal Spanish Football Federation postponed the 24 first-round Copa del Rey matches scheduled for the week. Real Madrid cancelled a commercial event and observed a minute of silence before training.
Read also: Bundesliga star’s celebration backfires spectacularly
Valverde’s teammates Éder Militão, Marc Cucurella and Arda Güler reshared the same family appeals on their own accounts, according to El Universal. Héctor Bellerín and Real Betis forward Borja Iglesias, outside the Madrid squad, did the same.
National mourning ends on Saturday 31 October. The regional health service in Castilla-La Mancha is continuing to call for walk-in blood donors at the hospital collection points Valverde linked from his account.
Read also: Vincent Kompany breaks silence on Bayern Munich training-ground collapse
