HEIDENHEIM, Germany (AP) \u2014 Heidenheim goalscorer Eren Dink\u00e7i was unable to hold back tears while fans celebrated his team\u2019s win as he thought of his girlfriend with leukemia.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe goal is for her, clearly,\u201d the 24-year-old Dink\u00e7i said after Heidenheim\u2019s 2-0 win over St. Pauli in the Bundesliga on Saturday. \u201cAnd I hope that it made her happy and the goal also gives her a bit of strength.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dink\u00e7i, who\u2019s on loan at Heidenheim from Freiburg, announced through both clubs\u2019 websites this month that his girlfriend Cinja has leukemia and may need a stem cell donation.<\/p>\n
Heidenheim organized a campaign with DKMS, a German-founded international charity helping people with blood cancer and blood disorders, to convince people to register as stem cell donors. Some 688 people registered around the team’s game in Freiburg last weekend, and more were expected to do so around the game in Heidenheim on Saturday.<\/p>\n
In a statement on the Heidenheim website, Dink\u00e7i and his girlfriend Cinja stressed the action was not for their own benefit but that their encounters with other patients had made an impression and they wanted to help others.<\/p>\n
Heidenheim coach Frank Schmidt said it was apt Dink\u00e7i got the goal that sealed the win.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a story that moves people in Germany and around the world, it moves me, too,\u201d Schmidt said. \u201cEren has the opportunity through his reach to help his family, his girlfriend, but also many other people. I think you can see how much it resonated today and last week. First and foremost we\u2019re not footballers, football coaches or machines \u2014 we\u2019re people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Heidenheim is last in the Bundesliga and its win over St. Pauli staved off relegation for another week at least.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HEIDENHEIM, Germany (AP) \u2014 Heidenheim goalscorer Eren Dink\u00e7i was unable to hold back tears while fans celebrated his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7586,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[7409,7424,5,7423,799,795],"class_list":{"0":"post-7585","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-germany","8":"tag-eren-dinkci","9":"tag-frank-schmidt","10":"tag-germany","11":"tag-heidenheim-cancer-dinkci-girlfriend","12":"tag-package-100502-member-choice-sports-option","13":"tag-product-30599-ap-sports-news-s-wire-only"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7585\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}