adminWolfsburg are in mourning following the death in a road accident of midfielder Junior Malanda.
The 20-year-old Belgium Under-21 international was on his way to join the squad due to fly to South Africa on Saturday evening when he was killed in a car crash on a German motorway.
The club called a news conference later yesterday to announce that their training camp in South Africa will go ahead.
Hundreds of fans of the German Bundesliga club gathered at the team’s home ground, the Volkswagen Arena, late Saturday to light candles, lay flowers and mourn.
“We’re distraught and can simply not find the words to express our bewilderment,” club sports director Klaus Allods said.
“We all loved him dearly. He was the positive spirit within the team and a young man full of the joys of life.”
Messages of condolence and tribute have poured in. Bundesliga clubs have sent their commiserations, and Bayern Munich players held a minute’s silence yesterday at their training camp in Doha, Qatar.
Bayern sports director Matthias Sammer said in Doha: “We feel great sorrow. It’s a terrible thing for which words are difficult to find.”
Malanda was a passenger in an all-terrain vehicle which skidded off the A2 motorway and hit a tree amid heavy rain near the western German city of Porta Westfalica on Saturday afternoon. The driver and another passenger were seriously injured.
Police quoted witnesses as saying no other vehicle was involved in the accident. Malanda was thrown from the vehicle and died from his injuries at the accident scene. — AP
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