Wolfsburg still training despite Malanda’s death

Bundesliga;-Wolfsburg;-Junior-Malanda

Flowers, and candles are placed at the Volkswagen Arena stadium in Wolfsburg, Germany to remember Junior Malanda. (Peter Steffen/AP)

WOLFSBURG, Germany — Bundesliga side Wolfsburg is going ahead with its planned training camp in South Africa despite the death of midfielder Junior Malanda in a car crash on Saturday.

Wolfsburg general manager Klaus Allofs says, "It wasn’t an easy decision but we’re sure that it’s absolutely the right one . He wanted success, to achieve great things with us, and it’s the least we could do for him."

The 20-year-old Malanda, a Belgium youth international, died when the Volkswagen Touareg in which he was a back seat passenger crashed off the motorway near Bielefeld. He was on his way to meet teammates for Saturday night’s planned departure to the training camp.

Wolfsburg was bringing in counsellors to help players cope with the loss of their teammate.

Allofs says, "Everyone is completely distraught."

When submitting content, please abide by our submission guidelines, and avoid posting profanity, personal attacks or harassment. Should you violate our submissions guidelines, we reserve the right to remove your comments and block your account. Sportsnet reserves the right to close a story’s comment section at any time.