Arsenal star Mikel Merino admits he’s ‘fortunate to be alive’ after ‘an angel’ saved him during Borussia Dortmund bus bombing
Arsenal midfielder Mikel Merino has admitted he is ‘fortunate to be alive’ after ‘an angel’ prevented him from being injured in the 2017 Borussia Dortmund bus bombing.
The football world was shaken when the German side were victims of an attack by Sergej Wenergold, which saw three pipe bombs detonated near the bus when it was on its way to a Champions League match.
Dortmund defender Marc Bartra was left hospitalised with a wrist injury following the attack, while a police officer was also treated for injuries and unable to return to work.
Merino, meanwhile, escaped unscathed – but that may not necessarily have been the case.
‘I think I have an angel on my shoulder,’ Merino, who was 20 at the time, told The Players’ Tribune. ‘I’m actually fortunate to be alive at all.
He added: ‘There was a deafening noise, and then I remember the bus nearly tipping over. I looked behind me and saw blood on the floor. Smoke, screams. I remember being at the hospital later that night, waiting for Marc Bartra, who had his wrist badly cut up.
Arsenal’s Mikel Merino has said he is ‘fortunate to be alive’ after being onboard Dortmund’s team bus during a bombing
The Dortmund bus was targeted in 2017 when on its way to a Champions League quarter-final
‘The next day, someone told me that a huge piece of shrapnel was lodged in the headrest of the seat next to Marc. My usual seat. That day, the seat was empty.
‘My legs were feeling a bit tight, and the seats in the front reclined. So I sat up there instead, and it may have saved my life. So yeah, I just have this belief that things happen for a reason.’
The pipe bombs were hidden in hedges by the side of the road and detonated at around 7.15pm local time. Dortmund were on the way to their stadium to face Monaco in the Champions League quarter-finals.
The bombs were filled with metal pins and had a reach of around 100 meters.
After a lengthy investigation, Wenergold, then 29, was charged with 28 counts of attempted murder for the attack. He was sentenced to 14 years in prison.
He said during the trial that he did not intend to kill any of the players but make money by betting on a fall in Borussia Dortmund’s stock market price.
England manager Thomas Tuchel was manager of Dortmund at the time and said of UEFA: ‘A few minutes after this attack, the only question that was asked was, are you ready to play? As if we’d had a beer can thrown at our bus.
‘There was a feeling of helplessness. We weren’t asked about playing the game.’
