Drama about professional footballer: Ajax Amsterdam pays his family almost eight million euros in compensation

Created: 02/22/2022, 10:22 am

By: Alexander Kaindl

Abdelhak Nouri (left) in February 2017 together with his former Ajax colleague Hakim Ziyech.

© ANP / Imago

Ajax Amsterdam will pay €7.85m in compensation to the Nouri family.

The Dutch announced this on Monday.

Amsterdam - His story moved the entire football world: Abdelhak Nouri was considered a huge talent, a promise for the future.

A great career was predicted for the young Dutch international, in his first professional season he played for Ajax Amsterdam alongside current stars such as Frenkie de Jong, Matthijs de Ligt, Hakim Ziyech and Donny van de Beek.

Nouri's path could possibly have gone in a similar direction.

Barcelona, ​​Juventus Turin, Chelsea, Manchester United, Everton FC – his former colleagues are now playing there.

But tragically everything turned out very differently for the now 24-year-old.

Abdelhak Nouri: Ajax Amsterdam will pay his family €7.85m in compensation

It was July 8th, 2017, Ajax were preparing for the upcoming season in a training camp.

The Dutch record champions played a friendly against SV Werder Bremen that day.

Nouri was on the pitch - and suffered a cardiac arrest.

The young star had to be resuscitated on the field, the game was stopped immediately and Nouri was hospitalized.

There he was finally placed in an artificial coma, and five days later it turned out that the Dutchman with Moroccan roots had suffered severe and permanent brain damage.

During a routine examination in 2014, Nouri was found to have a heart defect that was apparently classified as harmless.

There was a long discussion about this and whether one might not have acted correctly on that July 8, 2017.

Now there is certainty: Ajax admitted to mistakes in medical care on the pitch and, as an employer, takes responsibility for it.

A compensation payment of 7.85 million euros for Nouri's family was agreed, as the club announced on Monday. 

Ajax Amsterdam on Abdelhak Nouri: "It's good that an agreement has been reached"

"It's good that an agreement has been reached so we can wrap this up.

We all know that the suffering is not over for Abdelhak and his loved ones.

It remains a very sad situation," said Ajax manager and ex-national keeper Edwin van der Sar.

The association has reimbursed the costs of Nouri's care since 2017 and will continue to cover them.

The Nouri family dropped the proceedings before the Arbitration Committee of the Dutch association KNVB after the settlement.

“It is good that the discussion about liability and its consequences is a thing of the past and that we can look to the future together.

This will mainly focus on the great plans we have with the Abdelhak Nouri Foundation," said Abdelhak's father, Mohammed Nouri.