Florian Vijent (28 November 1961 – 7 June 1989), was a Dutch-Surinamese

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

goalkeeper. During his career he played for

Telstar Telstar refers to a series of communications satellites. The first two, Telstar 1 and Telstar 2, were experimental and nearly identical. Telstar 1 launched atop of a Thor-Delta rocket on July 10, 1962, successfully relayed the first televisi ...

. He died at the age of 27, when on 7 June 1989, he was killed in the Surinam Airways Flight PY764 air crash in

Paramaribo Paramaribo ( , , ) is the capital city, capital and largest city of Suriname, located on the banks of the Suriname River in the Paramaribo District. Paramaribo has a population of roughly 241,000 people (2012 census), almost half of Suriname's p ...

. He is not related to Ed Vijent. Vijent's large build was one of the reasons he became a goalkeeper. At the end of the 1988-89 season he was named as "Best goalkeeper of the season" in the

Eerste Divisie The Eerste Divisie (; ) is the second-highest tier of football in the Netherlands. It is linked with the top-level Eredivisie via promotion/relegation systems. It is also known as the Keuken Kampioen Divisie due to sponsorship reasons, while ...

. Vijent resembled

AFC Ajax Amsterdamsche Football Club Ajax (), also known as AFC Ajax, Ajax Amsterdam, or commonly Ajax, is a Dutch professional Association football, football Football team, club based in Amsterdam, that plays in the , the top tier in Dutch football. ...

goalkeeper and close friend

Stanley Menzo Stanley Purl Menzo (born 15 October 1963) is a Dutch football manager and former professional player who played as a goalkeeper. He is currently the manager of the Suriname national team. He spent ten full seasons at Ajax, appearing in more th ...

, who often borrowed Vijent's drivers license. Together with Menzo and teammate Radjin de Haan he was invited by Sonny Hasnoe, the founder of the

Colourful 11 Surinam Airways Flight 764 was an international scheduled passenger flight from Amsterdam Airport Schiphol in the Netherlands to Paramaribo-Zanderij International Airport in Suriname on a Surinam Airways Douglas DC-8, DC-8-62. On Wednesday 7 June ...

, to be part of the team and travel to Suriname to play in the "Boxel Kleurrijk Tournament" against three Surinamese teams. Although Menzo was instructed to not participate in the tournament by Ajax, he defied his club, booking an earlier flight to Suriname. On 7 June 1989, Surinam Airways Flight PY764 crashed during approach to

Paramaribo-Zanderij International Airport Johan Adolf Pengel International Airport , also known as Paramaribo-Zanderij International Airport, and locally referred to simply as JAP, is an airport located in the town of Zanderij and hub for airline carrier Surinam Airways, south of Param ...

, killing 176 of the 187 passengers on board, including Vijent, making it the worst ever aviation disaster in Suriname's history. Of the 18-member Colourful 11 team, only De Haan and two other team members survived the accident. Vijent's younger brother Patrick was facing psychological problems even before Florian's death. His problems, however, merely worsened after Florian's death and only a few days after the accident he committed suicide by throwing himself in front of an oncoming train.

References

Vijent at AndroKnel.nl
* * Iwan Tol: Eindbesteming Zanderij; het vergeten verhaal van het Kleurrijk Elftal () 1961 births 1989 deaths Footballers from Amsterdam Dutch men's footballers Dutch sportspeople of Surinamese descent SC Telstar players Eerste Divisie players Men's association football goalkeepers Footballers killed in the Surinam Airways Flight 764 crash 20th-century Dutch sportsmen {{Netherlands-footy-goalkeeper-stub