A young player-turned-referee was brutally murdered after a casual football match turned sinister. Otávio Jordão da Silva Cantanhede was just 19 when he cycled alongside his brother to the match which would ultimately end his life in horrific circumstances.

Cantanhede, who was carrying a knife, headed a few miles down a dirt road towards his local football pitch in Centro do Meio, a neighbourhood in northeastern Brazil. The match, which took place in 2013, was casual, with wooden posts, no nets and worn sandy grass. Half of the players wore shirts while the other half played bare-chested.

As reported by the Mirror, Cantanhede started the match in defence but became referee after getting injured. However, after giving a yellow card to a player named Josemir Santos Abreu, an argument between the pair, who were friends, followed.

Cantanhede stabbed the 30-year-old twice, who died before getting to the hospital. He was then lethally set upon by at least four of Abreu’s friends, according to local police.

Fuelled by alcohol and drugs, the group of thugs tied up Cantanhede and smashed him in the face with a bottle of alcohol. They pummeled him with a wooden stake, ran him over with a motorcycle and stabbed him in the throat.

The murderers also cut off his legs and head, with his arm and wrist left barely attached. Police said his head was placed on a fence near the football pitch.

Valter Costa dos Santos, the regional police chief and lead investigator in the case, said: “Graphic images taken by hospital workers showed that Cantanhede’s lower legs were cut off and left beside him like prostheses.

“His right arm and left wrist remained attached by strips of skin. He was decapitated and his head was placed on a wooden fence post across the road from the field.”

He added: “In the first moment, I didn’t believe it happened. I didn’t think human beings had such perverseness to do this.”

The horrific crime left local people in shock. Mauricio Murad, a sociologist at Salgado de Oliveira University in Rio, said: “It doesn’t have a direct link with football.

“It could have happened in any other place, in a bar. When we talk about football violence, it is between fan groups cheering for their team. This is an issue of violence in Brazil more than soccer violence.”