Sao Paulo (AFP) – Brazilian football team Chapecoense said Thursday they will play in a friendly match on January 21, their first fixture since the squad was wiped out in a plane crash.
Rebuilding the team after the tragedy which cut short their fairytale rise, the side will host Brazilian league opponents Palmeiras for the friendly.
Nineteen Chapecoense players and 24 other club members died when the plane crashed in the Colombian mountains as they flew to compete in the finals of the Copa Sudamericana regional tournament.
Chapecoense’s new president Plinio David De Nes Filho told a news conference the friendly fixture was a gesture “of solidarity and greatness by our brother club, Palmeiras, which has sought to accompany us at this time of sadness and reconstruction.”
Chapecoense on Wednesday presented the first three of 20 new players it plans to sign to rebuild its squad.
Its first competitive match since the disaster will be at home against Joinville on January 26.
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