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Manchester United’s new midfielder Donny van de Beek has said that he will wear the number 34 on his jersey as a tribute to former Ajax Amsterdam teammate Abdelhak Nouri, who suffered brain damage after a heart attack in 2017.
Nouri, who also wore the bib, made his senior debut in 2016-17 before his playing career ended prematurely after suffering cardiac arrest in a preseason friendly in Austria.
Despite being revived in the field and transferred to a hospital, Nouri suffered severe and permanent brain damage.
“This is something special to me because of my good friend Abdelhak Nouri,” Van de Beek, who came to United from Ajax on a five-year contract on Wednesday, told the club’s website.
“He had a heart attack … I am very close to his family and his brother is one of my best friends and I talk to them a lot. So I decided to wear his old number on my shirt and I want to get good memories with this number.”
Another Ajax academy graduate, Phillippe Sandler, also chose number 34 after joining Manchester City in 2018.
Thoughts on Nouri are never far from Van de Beek, who previously paid tribute to his friend after scoring in the 34th minute of a Champions League win at Juventus last year.
Ajax, which had continued to pay Nouri after the incident, formally canceled his contract in March.
Dutch media reported at the time that the club was in talks with Nouri’s family about a future solution for the player, who had been moved to a specially adapted room in their home after years in hospital.
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