His mother informed the Wat Doi Wao temple in his hometown in Chiang Rai, which the team frequently visited, of his death. Some of his teammates from the cave rescue also took to social media to share the news of his demise.
Last year, he enrolled in the Brooke House College Football Academy in Leicester, when he was 17 years old. Promthep, also known as Dom, was the captain of the Thai boys’ football team, which was trapped along with their coach for two weeks while exploring the six-mile Tham Luang cave in the Doi Nang Non-mountain range in June 2018.
The temple condoled the death of the youngster on Facebook on Wednesday and said, “May Dom’s soul rest in peace’ alongside pictures of the team with monks.”
One of his friends, who was also in the cave, wrote on Facebook: “Rip my dear friend. The 12 of us have been through a lot of things together, sadness, happiness, risk of death and many difficulties together. You told me to wait and see when you join the national team.”
He further wrote, “I always believed that you can do it. When we met last time before going to England, I still told you jokingly that I have to ask for your signature when I come back. Rest in peace, my friend. We will always be 12 of us.”
Zico Foundation, a Thai non-profit that had helped Promthep win a scholarship to study in England, also expressed condolences on Facebook.