Former Cardiff City, Leeds United defender Sol Bamba dies at 39

By Can Erozden

Former Cardiff City and Leeds United defender Sol Bamba from Ivory Coast died at the age of 39, a Turkish football club confirmed on Saturday night.

Adanaspor said on X that their technical director Bamba fell ill before a Friday match against Manisa Football Club in the Turkish second-tier league and was taken to a hospital in this province where he "lost his battle for life."

"Our condolences to his family and our team," the Turkish lower-division club added.

Bamba was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma in 2021 while he was at Cardiff, but then he announced that he was cancer-free after undergoing several rounds of chemotherapy.

In 2023, he retired from the game after playing for several clubs, including Paris Saint-Germain, Dunfermline Athletic, Middlesbrough, Leicester City, Leeds United, Hibernian, and Cardiff, as well as Türkiye's Trabzonspor.

Bamba amassed 46 caps for Ivory Coast.

Adanaspor hired him on July 25.

His former clubs Cardiff, Leeds, Middlesbrough, Paris Saint-Germain, and Trabzonspor extended their condolences over the death of Bamba.