Role Footballer Name Virgall Joemankhan | ????-1987 AFC Ajax Years Team | |
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Date of birth (1968-11-17)17 November 1968 Date of death 7 June 1989(1989-06-07) (aged 20) Place of death Zanderij Airport, Paramaribo, Suriname Died June 7, 1989, Johan Adolf Pengel International Airport, Suriname | ||
Place of birth Amsterdam, Netherlands | ||
Virgall Joemankhan (17 November 1968 – 7 June 1989) was a Dutch-Surinamese footballer. During his career he played for AFC Ajax and Cercle Brugge. He died at the age of 20, when on 7 June 1989 he was killed in the Surinam Airways Flight PY764 air crash in Paramaribo.
At Ajax, although he reached the A1 squad, Joemankhan and Dennis Bergkamp were both relegated to the A2 squad due to unprofessional conduct. While Bergkamp fought hard to improve his behaviour and his skills, Joemankhan chose to leave Ajax and play for Cercle Brugge in Belgium.
Although Joemankhan made his professional debut at Cercle Brugge, his reputation for partying continued. Along with his friend, Tom Krommendijk, a Feyenoord Rotterdam player on loan at Cercle with a similar reputation, they were often found together enjoying the nightlife in Brugge and Amsterdam.
He was invited by Colourful 11 founder Sonny Hasnoe to be part of the team travelling to Suriname to play in the "Boxel Kleurrijk Tournament" against three Surinamese teams. On 7 June 1989 Surinam Airways Flight PY764 crashed during approach to Paramaribo-Zanderij International Airport, killing 176 of the 187 passengers on board, including Joemankhan, making it the worst ever aviation disaster in Suriname's history. Among those killed were 15 members of the 18-member Colourful 11 contingent.
Tom Krommendijk returned to Feyenoord for the 1989-90 season, but was sent on loan to FC Twente for the following season. He would never play for Twente: on 25 August 1990 he was killed when his car collided with a tree, over a year after Joemankhan's death.