[letittbe]

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP)—Lei Clijsters, the father of tennis player Kim Clijsters and a former Belgium soccer international, died Sunday. He was 52.

Derniere Heure newspaper in Belgium reported Clijsters died after a yearlong battle with lung cancer.

He played 40 matches for Belgium’s national team, participating in the 1986 and 1990 World Cups. In 1986, Belgium reached the semifinals.

Clijsters played defense for several Belgian clubs and captained FC Mechelen when it won the European Cup Winners’ Cup in 1988 by beating Ajax in the final.

After retiring in 1993, Clijsters managed his daughter’s tennis career until her retirement in 2007. Kim Clijsters won the U.S. Open in 2005.

http://sports.yahoo.com/ten/news;_yl...v=ap&type=lgns

[letittbe]

I didn't see this posted.

[Mediconlinee]

We have it under "News, not Faux", Craig. We were all aware. A genuine tragedy.

[DoterForeva]

Sorry to hear this.

(as an aside, I am glad craig started a separate thread. I was not aware. If we can have separate threads for every single celebrity who dies...)

[Mediconlinee]

(as an aside, I am glad craig started a separate thread. I was not aware. If we can have separate threads for every single celebrity who dies...)

I guess there's really no rules on how we do these things, shtexas. If Oracene would pass away, she'd def get her own thread. If Iva Majoli's dad passed, it def would not, and might not even get reported. Lei obviously is in somewhat of the middle of these two extremes.

I think it also depends a lot of the time on who brings word of the event to TAT. I bet if Morct or Charlie or one of the other big Kim fans on the board (hmmmm, who else ) had started the discussion, it would have had its own thread.

[letittbe]

I forgot to check the tennis news thread. Sorry.

[Mediconlinee]

Almost uniformly, the coverage of Lei's death has been presented as the passing of "the father of tennis pro Kim Clijsters".

Lei was an accomplished athlete in his own right. Led Mechelen (his club) to the country's last huge international title. And was very highly regarded in his homeland. This article appeared this morning, and wanted to share it:

_______________________________________

When Lei Clijsters died, the headline that bounced around the world networks was: "Father of Kim Clijsters dies at 52."

He deserves more than that. "Leo" Clijsters certainly was the proud papa who managed the careers of his daughters, the former tennis No. 1, Kim Clijsters, and her sister, Elke. But it is disingenuous to leave the impression of him as a tennis father.

First and foremost, Clijsters was a soccer player who led a modest club, Mechelen, to the last major European trophy any Belgian team has won in 20 years. He was a defender, a libero, in his nation's finest soccer hours, its World Cup semifinal in 1986 and the World Cup second round in 1990.

"He brought tranquillity to the field," Bruno Versavel, a younger teammate said Monday. "He was like a protective father to me when I came into the team. We roomed together, and he taught me at times when to be modest."

Modest, tranquil, private - yet visibly proud, competitive, communicative in action. During the 1990 World Cup, he stepped out of character to score Belgium's first goal against Uruguay in Verona - a bullet of a header - and it said much about him that the two other scorers, Enzo Scifo and Jan Ceulemans, followed his lead.

Rest of article:http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/01/...rts/robweb.php



He was, according to this article, quite the man. And it gives you a much better picture that when we all cringed at times hearing Kim saying that family was so much more important than tennis, it was a lesson imparted to her from her father.