“Chris Knoll: The Hero and Defender of West Ham Family Sector Against Dutch Ultras”

The qualification of West Ham at the final of Conference League, where he will challenge Fiorentina on June 7, has had a side of violence that could have very serious consequences. If the fury of the fans of theTHEunleashed after the 1-0 away victory of the English, did not cause injuries and also thanks to the behavior – which in England all the media define as heroic – of Chris Knoll, a Hammers fan who practically single-handedly stopped the Dutch ultras preventing them from accessing the grandstand where the families of the players were among others.

Chaos broke out at the final whistle, immediately after Pablo Fornals’ goal in the 94th minute, which – added to the 2-1 first leg – eliminated AZ from the competition, qualifying David Moyes’ team for the final. At that point it was hell at the AFAS Stadion: the Dutch hooligans, all dressed in black and hooded, tried to invade the sector behind the benches, occupied by friends and relatives of the West Ham players and technical staff, who had accompanied them away.

Realizing what was happening, several players from the London team and DS Mark Noble with them rushed to try to protect their loved ones, but they weren’t the only ones to move. A clip that went viral with millions of views also shows a corpulent English fan intervening with extraordinary courage to defend those who were behind him: alone against dozens of troublemakers, before another equally fearless person gave him a hand.

The images in the video show Chris Knoll taking it but above all giving it, making it effectively impossible for the AZ ultras to cross its obstacle to invade the host sector. “Legend” ed “hero” are the terms used on social media, but also by the British media, to describe the behavior of the valiant Hammer fan. The 58-year-old Chris is an electrician with four children and has just returned from hip surgery: he is a well-known face of the fans, known as “Knollsy” and now “Angelo of Alkmaar“.

When asked about the matter, he made a profession of modesty: “I’m not a hero, it was just a gut reaction – he told the Telegraph – I knew I had to do something, because if I didn’t try to defend them we would have been on the receiving end of a bad beating, I just defended them as best I could. Or it was about doing nothing and probably getting a bit of a beating or doing something about it. So I just took a position at the top, placed myself above the stairs where I knew they had to go up“.

Photographer Freddie Bonfanti was in the crowd in the stadium and took some photos that also went viral like the video: “Knollsy the legend. He prevented home fans from reaching the players’ families“, wrote on Twitter accompanying the shots. Also the goalkeeper of West Ham and France Alphonse Areola called Knoll a “legend” for helping to protect the families of gamers.