The former AC Milan striker interrupted his collaboration with a Dutch TV station to be close to his seriously ill wife. A love born young, lasting over time
She dressed in white like a swan. He was the Swan. Marco Van Basten and Liesbeth Capelleveen got married in a castle in Utrecht in July 1993. Among the guests there was also grief, rightly so, because they had long been fond of the groom. In the wedding photos, Marco, elegant as a lord, rests on two crutches, fresh from yet another operation on his right ankle, just two years away from a heart-breaking farewell. Swans abound on wedding greeting cards because, if they join their beaks, they form a heart with their necks and because, they say, they mate early and remain faithful for life.
kind couple
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This is how Marco and the blonde Liesbeth appeared in the eyes of Milan: engaged teenagers who became parents of three children, an advert for ideal love, a gentle but steely couple, never overexposed. Gullit and Rijkaard had more dancing hearts. Liesbeth, from an excellent family, has always been reserved, but strong. She answered the journalists who called home. It was Marco’s serenity, his strength, when fighting against that ankle seemed like a titanic task. Liesbeth prevented her husband’s melancholic nature from slipping into depression several times, even when his father Joop, to whom he was very close, died. Now it’s the Swan’s turn to open its protective wings. His Liesbeth is seriously ill. Van Basten has interrupted the collaboration with Ziggo Sport, Dutch TV. “I want to dedicate myself completely to Liesbeth’s recovery. It will be a difficult period, but we have a lot of faith.” The pain of those you love hurts more than your own. The ankle is a cold. But a Swan in love fights like a lion.
