RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- Alan Ruschel, one of three Chapecoense players who survived a 2016 plane crash, has secured a loan move to the team's Brazilian Serie A rivals Goias, both clubs said on Wednesday.
Ruschel, who turns 30 on Friday, will be tied to the Goiania-based club until the end of 2019.
"It was a joint decision between the player, the board and the coaching staff," read a Chapecoense statement. It added that Ruschel remains contracted with Chapecoense until the end of 2020.
Seventy-one people died, including 19 Chapecoense players and all of their coaching staff, when the LaMia charter plane in which they were travelling ran out of fuel and slammed into a hillside near the Colombian city of Medellin in November 2016.
Other survivors of the crash were goalkeeper Jackson Follmann, center-back Helio Neto, journalist Rafael Henzel, and flight attendants Erwin Tumiri and Ximena Suarez. Henzel died in March this year after suffering a heart attack.
Ruschel returned to football nine months after the tragedy by appearing in a friendly for the Brazilian club against Barcelona at the Camp Nou.
The left-back has played six of a possible 15 matches for Chapecoense in Brazil's Serie A this year.
