Hugo Broos learned this morning of the death of his peer Gille Van Binst after a message from his son. “It got to me,” Broos responds. “I lost my mind for a while.”
“Gille has been a bit of a guiding light in my life, so to speak. We joined the first team together, always shared a room in solitary confinement, and did our military service together.
“So he meant something in my life. Gille has always remained in my life and it’s special.
“In recent years contact had lessened somewhat due to my work in South Africa and his ongoing illness, but we heard and saw each other regularly.”
Broos and Van Binst, it was a successful marriage on and off the field. “We were pitted against each other. I was calm, Gille always had an opinion on everything. He was a lot more outgoing than me, but that’s why we got along so well.
“On the other hand, he wasn’t safe either. This has always surprised us. If it had rained, he changed his crampons up to 3 times before the match. People who didn’t know him very well can’t believe it. Yet he was like that.
“I laughed a lot with Gille, who was a tough player. He didn’t look at anyone. He had to do his job as a right defender and didn’t take anything else into account.
