Kudus had been looking for his goal against Sparta for a long time, but just before time it finally succeeded for the Ghanaian. He curled a free kick beautifully into the corner of the goal and thus made it 4-0 on behalf of Ajax. Why he was so emphatically looking for his goal became apparent when cheering.
Kudus ran to the corner flag and paid tribute to compatriot Atsu, the former Vitesse player who died in the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria. At the corner flag, Kudus pulled his shirt over his head and the shirt below it read “RIP Atsu.”
Normally yellow is drawn for players who pull their shirt over their heads, but Van Boekel touched his heart and indicated to Kudus that he would not draw yellow for this tribute to the deceased Ghanaian, who did not play with Kudus. Atsu played his 60th and last international match at the African Cup in the summer of 2019, Kudus then made his debut for the Ghanaian team in November of that year.