Justin Smids from Eindhoven was only eight when he died completely unexpectedly last year. Justin was a fanatical football player and to honor him and to ensure that he is not forgotten, dozens of football players competed in the Justin Smids Memorial Cup on Saturday.
The players run through the hall with passion. And there is even more fanatic cheering when a goal is scored. One of the participating teams in the tournament is the team from Brabantia football club where Justin played. His former teammates have mixed feelings on the field. “Justin was a football player on our team,” James explains. “He died and because he loved playing football very much, we are going to play football for him.”
“We clapped for him for a minute and then we started playing matches,” Enes adds. Natan says that he thought about his teammate while playing football. “Justin was a very good football player. We want to remember him. I think he would really like us to play football for him now.”
“If we stop talking about Justin, he’s gone.”
Justin’s parents organized the tournament together with his former trainer. Devid emotionally talks about the day his son Justin died. “He had the flu, like everyone does sometimes. After being very ill for a few days, he was on the mend again. He started eating again and his smile returned.”
“At work I suddenly received a phone call that something was wrong,” Devid continues. “Justin had stopped breathing. Afterwards it turned out that the flu caused an inflammation of the heart muscle, which paralyzed it. Then you can no longer do anything. The chance of that happening is very small. Incomprehensible. Then your world collapses.”
The loss is very difficult. People find it difficult to talk to us about that. But if we stop talking about Justin, he’s gone,” he says with tears in his eyes. “We want him to still be there. And with this tournament we say in a big way: here he is. And we get a lot of strength from that.”
The tournament is of course named after Justin, the Justin Smids Memorial Cup. “But a lot of kids are already calling it the Jussie Cup. That’s what a lot of people called it. That’s really nice.”
“This is how we turn something ugly into something beautiful.”
Jochem Goedhals was Justin’s trainer at Brabantia. He is proud: “Twenty teams participated, even from outside Brabant. Jussie was suddenly taken away from the team and from our lives. I wanted to keep his name alive and honor him. And that worked. It is beautiful in its ugliness. It is beautiful, but you would rather not have wanted this.”
The tournament is also confrontational for the team. “All the emotions are coming back now that we are thinking about it in detail again. Justin breathes everything, he is really there again. I really hope that we can organize again next year.”
“I think he’s proud of us.”
His former teammates hope so too. They enjoyed being able to play football for Justin. James says enthusiastically: “We really wanted to win the tournament, because this is for Justin. We didn’t succeed. But I think he is proud of us.” “I did score once,” Natan adds. And then I thought: it’s for Justin.”
