Spanish matador Iván Fandiño’s haunting final words have resurfaced in new coverage of his 2017 death.
Fandiño, 36, died on June 17, 2017, at the Aire-sur-l’Adour bullfighting festival in southwest France after tripping over his own cape and being gored by a half-tonne bull. The Basque-born father of two had already fought one bull earlier that day before entering the ring for his fatal performance.
As he was rushed from the arena bleeding heavily, photographs showed him still conscious. His final words, reported by multiple outlets and witnesses at the scene, were: “Hurry up, I’m dying.” French media later reported that he suffered a fatal heart attack en route to the hospital.
Fellow matador Juan del Álamo, who killed the bull after the goring, expressed shock in comments at the time. “I can’t believe it. 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,” he said. The animal’s horn had pierced several vital organs in Fandiño’s torso, including his lungs.
The matador’s death marked the first time a professional bullfighter had died in France in nearly a century. The last was Isidoro Mari Fernando, who was killed in the arena in Béziers in 1921, according to French regional newspaper Sud-Ouest.
Fandiño had survived at least two serious prior injuries in the ring. In 2014, he was knocked unconscious during a fight in Bayonne, France. The following year, a bull threw him into the air in Pamplona, Spain. Despite these incidents, he maintained a reputation for confronting bulls that other matadors considered excessively dangerous.
The Spanish royal family and government honored Fandiño following his death. King Felipe tweeted a tribute calling him a “great bullfighting figure.” Then-Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy also extended condolences to the matador’s family.
Fandiño’s death came less than a year after another high-profile fatality in the bullring. Spanish matador Víctor Barrio was gored to death during a televised event in July 2016, becoming the first matador to die in Spain in three decades.
In the viral moment that preceded Fandiño’s death, footage shows him attempting to maneuver the bull with his cape. On the second pass, his feet became entangled in the fabric. He stumbled forward and fell face-down as the animal charged, its horn finding his torso before he could recover. The entire sequence unfolded in seconds, leaving fellow fighters and ring assistants rushing to distract the bull while medical personnel moved in.
Bullfighting remains legal in both Spain and France despite ongoing controversy. France formally recognized the practice under local customary law in 2012, though animal rights campaigners have repeatedly called for bans. In Spain, the activity is protected as part of the country’s “cultural heritage,” though the region of Catalonia attempted to prohibit it in 2010 before the Constitutional Court overturned the ban in 2016.
Fandiño’s final utterance has become one of the most widely quoted details from any modern bullfighting fatality, embodying the stark reality of a tradition where death arrives without warning.
The Aire-sur-l’Adour festival continues to host bullfighting events in the Landes department of southwest France.