5 March, 2017
SAO PAULO, Saturday (AFP) – When Brazilian goalkeeper Jakson Follmann took his first steps since surviving a plane crash that wiped out his football club, he called it a win -- with his hardest ever season just starting.
Follmann was the reserve goalie of Chapecoense, which went from the most feelgood team in football-mad Brazil to a national tragedy.
This was a lowly club that had fought its way to the finals of the regional Copa Sudamericana regional tournament. Then on November 28, almost the whole team was wiped out when the plane flying the players to Medellin, Colombia, for the big game crashed.
Seventy one people died, including the star first choice goalkeeper Danilo.