Volunteer Gène (79) finds a new home at a football club after his wife became ill: “Without something to do you go crazy. Here I get friendship and respect”

He is 79, says he knows “nothing about football”, and yet since this season he has been the silent force behind the pitch of BO Beerzel in Putte, Antwerp. While many football clubs search in vain for volunteers, Gène Thijs has fallen like a gift from heaven for the sub-topper in the fourth provincial F – and vice versa. “If you don’t have something to do, you go crazy. Here I get friendship and respect.”

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