{"id":52986,"date":"2026-04-21T16:34:24","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T16:34:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/52986\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T16:34:24","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T16:34:24","slug":"soccer-player-dos-santos-signs-pro-deal-after-surviving-swiss-fatal-bar-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/52986\/","title":{"rendered":"Soccer player Dos Santos signs pro deal after surviving Swiss fatal bar fire"},"content":{"rendered":"

METZ, France (AP) \u2014 After surviving a fatal bar fire in Switzerland<\/a> on New Year\u2019s Day, French soccer player Tahirys Dos Santos has signed his first professional contract with Metz.<\/p>\n

The Ligue 1 club announced the one-year contract<\/a> signing late Monday, nine days after the 19-year-old defender returned to play for its reserves team.<\/p>\n

Dos Santos was severely burned in the fire at a bar in ski resort Crans-Montana<\/a> in the early hours of Jan. 1 that killed 41 people and injured more than 100.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis moment has an even more special meaning after the difficult months I went through in the hospital,\u201d Dos Santos said in a club statement. \u201cThis test made me stronger and taught me to never give up.\u201d<\/p>\n

The French teenager, who has family ties to Cape Verde, joined his local club Metz at age eight. His return to action on April 11 was in the French fifth-tier division.<\/p>\n

Metz is last in Ligue 1 and will be relegated to play in the second tier next season.<\/p>\n

A product of Metz\u2019 youth academy, Dos Santos is described by the club as \u201ca tireless worker and exemplary both on and off the field.\u201d <\/p>\n

After being named captain of the reserve team at the start of the season, he began training with the first team and earned his first call-up at the end of December for a French Cup match.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am very happy and proud to sign my first professional contract with my training club. It\u2019s the culmination of many years of work, sacrifice, and determination to achieve my childhood dream,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

That dream could have come to an abrupt end in Crans-Montana. But Dos Santos managed to survive the inferno.<\/p>\n

While he could have escaped before the fire spread, he turned back to rescue his girlfriend Coline from the restroom.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had been in the bar for thirty or forty minutes, the atmosphere was good,\u201d he told L\u2019Equipe newspaper earlier this year. \u201cColine wanted to go to the restroom, so I went with her. I came out before she did and headed toward the exit. That\u2019s when I saw the flames. I immediately understood we were in danger. I didn\u2019t think \u2014 I turned back to get her. I shouted her name, and she immediately saw in my eyes that something was wrong. She followed me right away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dos Santos recalled that he was separated from his girlfriend after they both slipped in a staircase as panic spread. L\u2019Equipe reported that Dos Santos suffered burns to his back, face, hands and arms, and underwent a skin graft. Coline was evacuated to a hospital in Belgium and spent three weeks in a coma, undergoing surgery three times.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to send all my support to everyone who is still fighting, never lose hope,\u201d Dos Santos said.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP soccer: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/soccer<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"METZ, France (AP) \u2014 After surviving a fatal bar fire in Switzerland on New Year\u2019s Day, French soccer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":52987,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[12868,29925,5936,2019,307,41,17],"class_list":{"0":"post-52986","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-switzerland","8":"tag-belgium","9":"tag-fc-metz","10":"tag-ligue-1","11":"tag-soccer","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-swiss","14":"tag-switzerland"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116443667924422474","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52986\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}