Roma winger Justin Kluivert dedicated the goal he scored on his Champions League debut to former Ajax teammate Abdelhak Nouri, who recently came out of a coma after almost a year.
Kluivert ran to the bench and held up a shirt bearing Nouri’s name and the No. 34 he had worn at Ajax after scoring in the 5-0 win over Viktoria Plzen.
“It was a special evening and I’m really happy,” he told reporters after the match. “I made a special dedication for my goal to my former teammate Appie.”
Nouri, 21, suffered cardiac arrhythmia while playing for Ajax in July 2017, resulting in permanent brain damage.
Kluivert played alongside him in Amsterdam from 2016 before moving to Rome in the summer.
Both he and fellow former Ajax player Amin Younes, who moved to Napoli in the summer, have chosen to honour Nouri by wearing his number.