Soccer supporters throw stuffed toys to honor the rival team member's daughter who died days earlier

Soccer fans always have a unique way to pay tribute to their teams and sometimes even to their rival teams. Sadly, two days before the game between Dutch football team Cambuur and FC Emmen, one of the Emmen’s staff member's lost his 14-year-old daughter. To honor her, the Cambuur supporters threw hundreds of stuffed toys on the field during the 14th minute of the game on January 15 in Emmen, Netherlands. In the video posted by ESPN, hundreds of spectators in the stands can be seen singing together and waving banners with the names of the staff member Mickael and his late daughter Shania. The match needed to be paused for a while as the stuffed toys kept being thrown on the field.

The video was also uploaded on Reddit by u/CatsAreWhatHappens and has more than 4700 upvotes. It is captioned, “Dutch football supporters throw stuffed animals on the pitch during the 14th minute of the game. To honor the death of the 14-year-old daughter of one of the rival team's staff two days before the game.”

People on Reddit loved the tribute that the Dutch football supporters gave. @Nice-Emotion-7465 wrote, “That’s a beautiful tribute! My 10-year-old daughter told me (after attending a funeral of a loved one) that when she dies if we can bury her with all her stuffed animal friends. I told her I hope to be long gone by then.” @u/1Tikitorch said, “That shows some class by the fans.” @u/cubanosania59 wrote, “That’s heart-breaking to know the fact. But also heartwarming to the fact that supporters can be fn awesome.” @u/strongsafe said, “aww thanks for sharing this moment. that was such a thoughtful gesture, has me tearing up, both at the fans' kindness and for the pain of that poor staff member and their family.”

Talking about tributes, school kids in Cincinnati had a special tribute for Buffalo Bills player Damar Hamlin when he was admitted to the hospital. They made sweet get-well-soon cards for Hamlin. Sarah Taylor, wife of Cincinnati Bengals head coach Zac Taylor organized a letter-writing campaign for Hamlin and about 40 schools participated in it, as reported by TODAY. The campaign first began in the school where their children study called Cardinal Pacelli School.

School principal Terri Cento said, "Mrs. Taylor, reached out to us about helping with a get well cards campaign to show support for Damar Hamlin. We were eager to lend a hand." She added, that their “students have a lot of compassion and value the power of prayer.” She also said, “Through prayer and the creation of our get well cards, we hope to give support to Damar and his family." The beautiful handwritten notes, colored with crayons and markers were sent to Hamlin’s hospital on January 6, as tweeted by Meghan Mongillo, an anchor, and reporter of Local12 WKRC-TV.

On January 9, Hamlin was released from the medical facility where he was admitted for seven days due to a cardiac arrest, as reported by CNN. Dr. William A Knight, a doctor at UC Medical Center in Cincinnati said that he was released to a healthcare team from Buffalo after his condition improved. Hamlin was reportedly flown back to Buffalo on Monday. “He is doing well and this is the beginning of the next stage of his recovery,” Knight said. “It is entirely too premature to discuss, not only his football, it’s that we’re really focused on his day-to-day recovery.”