Roberto Román Valencia

Roberto Román Valencia (10 February 1945 – 9 April 2020) was an Ecuadorian lawyer and sports journalist, known as El Fantasma ("the ghost"), who had a long career in sports journalism in the written press, radio and television, for fifty years.

Biography

He practiced sports journalism in various media, and was a lawyer by profession, as well as Technical Director. He was President of the Coaches Association and Director of the Out of Field (Fuera del Campo) Program (Founded on January 3, 1983).

As a journalist, he worked as editor of Diario Extra for sixteen years.

He was a member of the sports team that would make up El Canal del Fútbol, but this did not materialize due to the state of emergency that was declared in Ecuador in early 2020 as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic. On April 8 it was reported that he urgently needed medicines, but fourteen hours later, on April 9, he died of respiratory complications due to COVID-19, at the age of 75.