Wolfsburg mourns Malanda

As supporters gathered to bid farewell to 20-year-old midfielder Junior Malanda, Wolfsburg's players readied for a delayed departure to their winter training camp in South Africa on Sunday evening.

After a day's reflection, the team's management decided to head for Cape Town after all.

"It was not an easy decision, but it is absolutely the right one," the club's commercial manager Klaus Allofs said. "Junior wanted success, so this is the last thing that we can do for him."

The team was initially scheduled to travel on Saturday evening, prior to Malanda's fatal car accident on the A2 autobahn between Bielefeld and Hanover. Malanda was on his way to Braunschweig airport to join his teammates and fly on to South Africa.

"The hole that he's leaving behind is large, but life goes on," coach Dieter Hecking said, battling back tears. "We must convey this, especially to our younger players."

'So curious, so hungry to learn'

Allofs and Hecking said that psychological support would be provided to the players in Cape Town, should they desire it. Allofs said the team would attend the young Belgian's funeral, and that leaving was not an attempt to return to normalcy, but rather an attempt to carry on as Malanda would have wanted.

"In a different environment, where we're not looking at Junior's locker every day, the group can better come to terms with this loss," Allofs said.

Roughly 1,000 of the club's supporters took part in a procession in mourning at the Volkswagen Arena stadium on Sunday, walking silently behind a banner reading: "R.I.P Junior." Many also signed a condolences book put out by the club.

"Everybody loved him. We love all of our players, but still, Junior was a special case. When he came to us last year, he really was all smiles, a man forever in a good mood," Allofs said of the departed 20-year-old. "He was so curious, so hungry to learn. He wanted to break into the national team, to win trophies with us; he was somebody who you simply had to like. I don't know of anybody in the team, despite the internal competition [for minutes on the pitch], who saw that any differently."

Malanda played 17 Bundesliga matches for Wolfsburg, scoring two goals, since his arrival from Belgian side Zulte Wagerem. The defensive midfielder, captain of the Belgian Under-21 outfit, was considered a probable star of the future.

msh/tj (dpa, SID)