Ajax Cancels Abdelhak Nouri's Contract After Paying His Salary Following Tragic Heart Attack

Ajax has canceled Abdelhak Nouri's contract just days after he returned home after over two years in the hospital following an on-field heart attack that wound up with him in a coma, according to Dutch media reports. 

Ajax paid the 22-year-old's salary for the past two years, and his contract was set to be automatically renewed July 1. Ajax was reportedly required to notify Nouri's family if the club was terminating the deal. His family has reportedly been seeking a bigger settlement since Ajax admitted to providing "inadequate" medical assistance when he collapsed during a preseason friendly against Werder Bremen in Austria in 2017.

Nouri was revived on the field following the cardiac arrhythmia and was then airlifted to a local hospital, but Ajax said it should have acted quicker to use a defibrillator. Nouri, despite being able to communicate to a degree with his family now, suffered permanent brain damage, and his family and Ajax have been engaged in a dispute over the tragedy ever since.

"We recognize our responsibility and liability for the consequences of this," Ajax CEO Edwin van der Sar said in 2018.

Nouri has been the subject of fan, player and club tributes from around the world, with Ajax's 34th Eredivisie title last season matching his No. 34 jersey and serving as a focal point of the club's many celebrations. He made 15 appearances in his debut season and was seen as one of the club's rising talents before having his promising career cut short.