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Fandiño, a veteran matador from the Basque Country, died in 2017 after being gored by a bull during the Aire-sur-l’Adour bullfighting festival in southwest France.
He was just 36 years old and known for taking on bulls that most others wouldn’t dare face, BBC News reports.
That day, Fandiño had already participated in one competition before stepping into the ring again. But it was during this later performance that disaster struck.
The matador’s feet became entangled in his own cape as he attempted to guide the bull through it. He managed to get the animal through on his first try, but his second attempt ended in catastrophe.
Footage shows him unable to get out of the way as the half-tonne bull surged forward, its horn piercing his body and striking multiple vital organs, including his lungs.
As Fandiño tried to escape, the bull gored him again – driving its horn into him a second time while he attempted to flee.
Photographs captured the aftermath: Fandiño conscious but bleeding heavily, being carried off by fellow matadors who quickly rushed in to distract the bull and protect their fallen comrade.
While being rushed to the hospital, Fandiño is reported to have said his final words, per Joe: “Hurry up, I’m dying.”
According to French media, he died from a heart attack en route to the hospital.
Juan del Alamo, the matador who ultimately killed the bull following the tragedy, struggled to comprehend the event. “I can’t believe it,” he said at the time. “None of us understand how it could have happened; it was all so fast. The bull knocked him down with its hindquarters and he fell face down.”
The footage of the fatal goring, was circulated widely online and on platforms like YouTube via Castilla-La Mancha Media.
Fandiño wasn’t a stranger to injury in the ring. Just two years earlier, in 2015, he was thrown into the air by a bull during the Fiesta de San Fermín in Pamplona. The year before that, he was knocked unconscious during a fight in Bayonne, France.
Additionally, his death marked a grim milestone — it was the first time a matador had died in France in nearly 100 years. The last was Isidoro Mari Fernando, who was fatally gored in Béziers in 1921.
Despite growing backlash and calls from animal rights advocates to outlaw bullfighting, France’s Constitutional Council ruled in 2012 to keep the tradition legal, recognizing it as part of the nation’s cultural fabric.
Each year, more than 1,000 bulls are killed in French bullfights, particularly in regions like Nîmes and Arles where the practice remains popular, BBC News reports.
Spain, where the tradition is even more entrenched, also continues to support the spectacle. Bullfighting was declared a protected part of Spain’s ‘cultural heritage’, despite waves of criticism and ongoing protests. Some regions and cities in the country have banned the practice.
Following Fandiño’s death, tributes poured in. He was honored by both the Spanish royal family and the Prime Minister, marking the loss of not only a revered fighter but a figure who symbolized the ongoing cultural — and ethical — debate surrounding bullfighting.
