Alberto Sonsol 📖 Wikipedia

Alberto Sonsol Cohen (November 26, 1957 – March 25, 2021) was a Uruguayan sports journalist, sportscaster and television presenter.^[1]

Alberto Sonsol was born on 26 November 1957 in the Palermo neighbourhood of Montevideo, to David Sonsol and Leonor Cohen, both of Jewish descent.^[2] His paternal grandfather, an Ashkenazi Jew whose surname was Schonsho, was the first member of the family to arrive in Uruguay; the surname was reportedly misrecorded by a customs official upon his arrival and thereafter remained Sonsol.^[3]

Sonsol attended the Instituto Yavne. In January 1984, he emigrated to Israel, where he worked as a waiter in an Argentine restaurant in Tel Aviv. Later that same year, however, he returned to Uruguay, where he began working as a sports journalist.^[4]

He began his career as a basketball announcer in 1984. A year later he reported his first full match for Radio Universal.^[5] Since the 1990s, he was a panelist on the program La Hora de los Deportes aired on National Television.^[6] However, during his 35 years in the media, he hosted the program 6.25 Basketball on Teledoce, and until 2017 he was a sports journalist and was in charge of sports commentary on Radio Sarandí Sport 890.^[7]

From 2015 to 2020 he presented the Uruguayan version of the Israeli format Raid the Cage, entitled Escape perfecto and aired on Channel 10.^[8] He was accompanied by Annasofía Facello, who also co-presented the spin-off featuring celebrities, along with Claudia Fernández.^[9] From 2020 until his death, he was part of Punto Penal and the Polémica en el bar Uruguay program panel.^[10][11] He also was the presenter of the sports section in Subrayado, the news division of Channel 10.^[12]

From February 2021 until his death, he was part of the cast of the comedy programme La Peluquería de Don Mateo.^[13] Following his death, he was replaced by Sebastián Almada.^[14]

• 2016: Golden Iris Award and Best Male TV Presenter
• 2017: Iris Award for best radio sportscaster

He was married to Patricia Datz, with whom he had three children: Diego, Alejandro and Micaela Sonsol.^[15][16] Alejandro "Lali" and Diego also work in the media, as sportscasters and presenters.^[17]

On March 12, 2021, it was announced that he had contracted COVID-19.^[18] On March 16, he was hospitalized at the British Hospital of Montevideo, after a low level of oxygen was detected in his blood,^[19] and four days later he was transferred to the ICU due to worsening symptoms.^[20] He died on March 25, 2021, at the age of 63.^[21][22] He was buried on April 2 in the Israelite Cemetery of La Paz.^[23] Due to the restrictions due to the pandemic, a funeral was not held, but a funeral procession was held from Club Atlético Atenas, of which Sonsol was a supporter, to the Centenario Stadium.^[24]