Minute twelve of the NEC-PSV match on Saturday evening was dominated by the death of Thijs Slegers. Both teams stopped playing football and thus paid tribute to the former PSV press secretary. The entire stadium applauded for a minute at that moment.
The minute of applause coincided with the Ramadan break, which was held for the first time in professional football.
NEC stadium De Goffert also paid attention to the deceased Slegers before kick-off: a minute of silence was held. Supporters also showed banners in the away section and on the home sections. “Thijs Slegers, a fighter until the last day”, was written on a canvas by the PSV supporters.
Stem cell donation
Slegers died this week at the age of 46. He had acute leukemia and announced in early February that he was not getting better. In the message in which he shared that news, he called on people to register as a stem cell donor. This happened en masse: thousands of people responded to Slegers’ call.