Miguel Van Damme started as a striker at FC Lembeke, but at Maldegem he was retrained as a goalkeeper. There he made his debut at the age of 17 in the first team, after which he was picked up by Cercle Brugge two years later.
A year later, trainer Lorenzo Staelens allowed him to sniff the real thing for the first time, although he remained mainly a couch potato in those first seasons. That changed when Cercle dropped to the 2nd class and the association fully played the Van Damme card in goal.
Just when he seemed to establish his name in the football world, disaster struck. During the tests for the new season, Van Damme was diagnosed with leukemia. Instead of a tough training camp, the goalkeeper faced a grueling course of chemotherapy.
Van Damme recovered and was even declared cured. Yet he would only be under the bar 5 more times, the last time during the play-offs in 2019. Time and again, the beast in his body resurfaced and – despite an admirable fighting spirit – kept him off the field.
In September, Van Damme finally hit a wall: treatment was no longer possible. That verdict came 2 days after he was told he would become a father for the first time.
He clung to that impending fatherhood in his last months: “I want to do everything I can to still hold the baby in my arms.” He finally succeeded, when he welcomed his daughter Camille in May of last year. But the happiness lasted less than a year.
“You left us very slowly. Yet you did it in your own way … very strong,” writes his wife Kyana in a touching farewell message.
