If this doesn’t get your tear ducts in action, I’m not sure what will. On Tuesday Billy Sharp, striker for the Doncaster Rovers, took the pitch shortly after the tragic loss of his son – who was only on this earth for two days. Sharp was not expected to play following the death of his son, Luey Jacob Sharp, but the striker called his coach (Dean Saunders) the night before the his team’s Football League Championship match against Middleborough and said he would play to honor his son.
“He rung me and asked if he could play — he wanted to play,” Saunders told The BBC. “He wanted to score a goal for his son and his family and he was ready to go. When he said that to me I couldn’t really refuse.”
Before the match started Sharp had sent a message which he requested be read to both teams prior to the match. The message read: “This is a minute’s applause to celebrate the short life of Billy and Jade’s son, Luey Jacob Sharp. Born 27th October, taken by the angels on the 29th. Sleep tight son.” As you can see from the below video, this request was well honored.
14 minutes into the match Sharp, who had been handed the captain’s armband, scored on a great strike and in celebration lifted up his jersey to reveal a message to his son on a T-Shirt: “That’s for you, son.”
[youtube width=”640″ height=”390″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoZG7ftG1kQ[/youtube]
Billy took to Twitter afterwards to express his thankfulness to his fans for the support:
[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/#!/billysharp10/status/131542573738237955″]
[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/#!/billysharp10/status/131543014278578179″]
via BBC
