- Edu Nandlal
Football player infobox
playername= Edu Nandlal
fullname = Radjindernath Nandlal
nickname =
dateofbirth = 1963 or 1964
cityofbirth =Paramaribo
countryofbirth =Suriname
position =
height =
youthyears =
youthclubs =
years = ????-????
????-????
????-1989
clubs =FC Utrecht FC Emmen Vitesse
caps(goals) =? (?)
? (?)
? (?)Radjindernath "Edu" Nandlal (born 1963 or 1964 in
Paramaribo ) is a retired Dutch-Suriname footballer. During his career, he played for theFC Utrecht ,FC Emmen andVitesse teams. He was one of the footballers that survived theSurinam Airways Flight PY764 air crash inParamaribo onJune 7 ,1989 .Nandlal moved from Suriname to the Netherlands in 1980 at the age of 17. His aim was to become a successful professional footballer. In Suriname, he excelled in several sports. His athletic abilities gave him some respite from the difficult times he endured at school. Due to his
Hindu background, he wasn't able to speak Dutch well. After he moved to the Netherlands, he studied and got rid of the language barrier. He became a talented footballer and was signed byFC Utrecht . Later he would play forFC Emmen and eventuallyVitesse where he would play until 1989.After the 1988-89 season, he was invited by
Sonny Hasnoe , the founder of theColourful 11 to be part of the team and travel to Suriname to play in the "Boxel Kleurrijk Tournament" with three Surinamese teams. Due to his nerves during the flight, Nandlal was unable to sleep and he switched seats withJerry Haatrecht to be able to have a better view out of the window. TheSurinam Airways Flight PY764 crashed during approach toParamaribo-Zanderij International Airport , killing 176 of the 187 onboard, making it the deadliest ever aviation disaster in Suriname's history. Among the dead were a total of 15 members of the Colourful 11 including Haatrecht. Only three of them, including Nandlal, survived.Nandlal remembers hearing a big bang prior to the accident and recalls the plane trying to regain altitude. From that moment, he went into shock and suffered memory loss. He had been talking to security people. After this, he was placed in a car, but he stepped out and went back into the jungle. He spent five days in a hospital in Paramaribo, but is unable to remember anything of this. In a hospital back in
Amsterdam , he came back to life and realised what had happened. He suffered a partial spinal cordlesion rendering himquadriplegic and spent 13 months in a wheelchair. As a result, he was unable to return to the pitch. He wasn't sure if he would ever be able to walk again, but with hard work, he finally succeeded.Exactly twelve years after the accident, on
June 7 ,2001 , he was told his five year old son was terminally ill. The boy died in his arms that day. Three months later, he divorced from his wife. He told journalistTon van den Berg that it was then that he finally understood the impact of losing someone close as he was still in shock after the air crash. Currently Nandlal is part of thepolitical party Leefbaar Utrecht and has his own cleaning company. He lives with his two daughters.References
* [http://www.ajax-usa.com/history/fifteen-years/1989/june-1989.html Crash report]
* [http://www.androknel.nl Crash website AndroKnel.nl] nl
* [http://www.utrechtseberg.nl/index.php?menu=5&post=29 Biography at utrechtseberg.nl] nl
* Iwan Tol: Eindbesteming Zanderij; het vergeten verhaal van het Kleurrijk Elftal (ISBN 9020403664) nl
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