Tributes are pouring in for former Ivory Coast defender Sol Bamba, who has died at the age of 39.
Turkish club Adanaspor, where Bamba was the technical director, announced his death on Saturday, stating that he had fallen ill before a match the previous day.
Bamba earned 46 caps for Ivory Coast, representing the nation at the 2008 Olympics and the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations. He also played for clubs including Cardiff City, Leeds United, and Leicester City, and had stints with Palermo in Italy, Dunfermline Athletic and Hibernian in Scotland, and Trabzonspor in Turkey.
Cardiff City, where Bamba helped secure promotion to the Premier League in his first full season, described him as “a true gentleman” in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, and said his impact on the club was “immeasurable.”
Leeds United posted on the platform that everyone at the club was “devastated” by the news of his passing, calling him “one of the nicest people in football.”
Bamba was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma in 2021 while at Cardiff but was declared cancer-free after undergoing chemotherapy. He returned to play for two English clubs before retiring in January 2023. He later transitioned into coaching, serving as assistant manager at Cardiff before becoming technical director at Adanaspor.
His wife, Chloe, paid tribute to him on Instagram, saying that although he faced cancer with stoicism, “it was never a fair fight.” She added, “These years have been indescribably difficult, but we still managed to find joy and laughter in it. It has been an honor to have loved and been loved by Sol.”
