It was with the latter club that he returned to football after recovery from non-Hodgin lymphoma diagnosed in January 2021. Unfortunately, the cancer returned, and it was in his last role in football as Technical Director to the Turkish club Adanaspor that he was taken ill half an hour before a match against Manisa on Friday night and died in hospital 24 hours later.
He previously played for French club PSG and for Scottish clubs Hibernian and Dunfermline and earned 46 caps for Côte d’Ivoire and played in the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008 and in the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations. But it was his time in the English Football and Premier Leagues that Sol will most fondly be remembered. His biggest success was achieving promotion to the Premier League with Cardiff for whom he made 118 appearances. He also achieved cult status on Teesside after scoring what turned out to be the winning penalty in front of the Stretford End in a FA Cup shoot out win at Manchester United.[1] He only played 52 games for Leicester and 51 for Leeds but what an impact he made everywhere he went.
Sol Bamba played for Leeds United at a time when the club was locked into a syndrome of mediocrity in the middle reaches of the Championship; a comatose shell of a club which within relatively recent memory had plied their profession in the upper reaches of both the English and European games (Champions League semi-finalists in May 2001 and the team which accumulated most Premier League points in that calendar year).
It was a club that under a succession of ownerships since the financial implosion caused by the reckless dash to growth presided over by Peter Ridsdale and the other board members of Leeds United PLC had become a byword for serial incompetence, mean spirited short-termism characterised by the dismantling of the squad that won promotion from League One in 2010 and a culture of lack of ambition that emitted from every pore of the club. It had become a gross inversion of the ruthless efficiency, attention to detail professionalism but also sublime artistry associated with Don Revie’s legendary team As Phil Hay puts it, when Sol arrived in 2015 on loan from Italian side Palermo, Leeds United were a Premier League entity trapped in the Championship, acting like they would be stuck in the second tier for eternity.[2]
At the time, the chair was Massimo Cellino, a convicted fraudster who seemed determined to fulfil every stereotype of his native Sicily by treating the club as his personal plaything. Managers came and went with the average duration of post-war Italian governments. More established club staff were treated with similar gratuitous contempt; club welfare officer Lucy Ward, distinguished former member of Leeds United Ladies, won a six-figure sum at an Employment Tribunal for unfair dismissal because Cellino disapproved of her relationship with then temporary manager, Neil Redfearn. Both Lucy and Neil are Leeds supporters to their core but not for the first time dedication to the cause counted for nothing for the powers-that-be at Elland Road as fans Simon Grayson as manager and local hero and captain Jon Howson found to their cost under Ken Bates.
It was into this maelstrom of unpredictability in the boardroom and dressing room cliques that Sol arrived. He soon established himself as a lionheart on and off the pitch. An accomplished centre back if not quite in the pantheon of Leeds’ heroes in that position most notably his fellow African Lucas Radebe. He had strength, had height and no little skill even if his occasional wild forays into attack did cause panic in the ranks of fans and coaching staff. He is better described as an old school centre back who one of his future managers Neil Warnock said was a better pure defender than Virgil van Dijk.[3]
At the time, the chair was Massimo Cellino, a convicted fraudster who seemed determined to fulfil every stereotype of his native Sicily by treating the club as his personal plaything. Managers came and went with the average duration of post-war Italian governments. More established club staff were treated with similar gratuitous contempt; club welfare officer Lucy Ward, distinguished former member of Leeds United Ladies, won a six-figure sum at an Employment Tribunal for unfair dismissal because Cellino disapproved of her relationship with then temporary manager, Neil Redfearn. Both Lucy and Neil are Leeds supporters to their core but not for the first time dedication to the cause counted for nothing for the powers-that-be at Elland Road as fans Simon Grayson as manager and local hero and captain Jon Howson found to their cost under Ken Bates.
It was into this maelstrom of unpredictability in the boardroom and dressing room cliques that Sol arrived. He soon established himself as a lionheart on and off the pitch. An accomplished centre back if not quite in the pantheon of Leeds’ heroes in that position most notably his fellow African Lucas Radebe. He had strength, had height and no little skill even if his occasional wild forays into attack did cause panic in the ranks of fans and coaching staff. He is better described as an old school centre back who one of his future managers Neil Warnock said was a better pure defender than Virgil van Dijk.[3]
But he was not unaware of the malaise around the club. Twice he spoke out publicly criticising the club’s management and demanding better. But rather than being peremptorily shown the door, Cellino appeared to appreciate such fronting up by making his loan deal permanent. Such honesty and courage have earned him a permanent place in the hearts of Leeds United supporters sadly accustomed we are to bearers of false hope, promises and futures. A further, counter-intuitive example of his integrity was his decision leave the club in 2016-17 on the grounds that a club captain who could not get a first team place would be a source of discord in the dressing room. “They didn’t need that,” he said later. “It was better for them that I got out of the way.”[4] A latter day invocation of King Billy Bremner’s ethical aphorism “Side Before Self Every Time”.
It was just such strength of his personality and that of Neil Warnock, Cardiff’s then manager and everyone’s favourite anti-hero, which propelled a workmanlike side to the Premier League where, had it not been for the anterior cruciate ligament injury that Bamba sustained in March 2019, they could have lasted longer than their single season. [5]
But Sol will always also be remembered for his radiant humanity. After his cancer diagnosis, he won plaudits for raising awareness of the disease, campaigning for clubs’ medical departments to implement more cancer checks. Dominic Booth recalls that on the day that Cardiff had secured promotion to the Premier League, he was invited along with a Cardiff supporting friend over the objections of the bouncer to a private club where the players were enjoying a post end-of-season awards bash celebration.[6] He always made time for fans and the media, a quality not often found in the modern footballer.
Goodbye Sol. The wider football community will miss your “beaming smile” as Warnock put it on X. You still had so much to give but what you did give at Leeds United will always be remembered.
[1] Ben Burrows, Former Cardiff, Leicester and Leeds defender Sol Bamba dies aged 39. The Athletic. 1st September 2024.
[2] Phil Hay, Remembering Sol Bamba: No bitterness, no resentment, just strength, bravery, and that glorious smile. The Athletic. 1st September 2024.
[3] Dominic Booth, Farewell to a gentle giant who gave the game grace. Guardian.3rd September. 2024
[4] Phil Hay, op cit
[5] Dominic Booth, op cit
[6] Ibid.
It was just such strength of his personality and that of Neil Warnock, Cardiff’s then manager and everyone’s favourite anti-hero, which propelled a workmanlike side to the Premier League where, had it not been for the anterior cruciate ligament injury that Bamba sustained in March 2019, they could have lasted longer than their single season. [5]
But Sol will always also be remembered for his radiant humanity. After his cancer diagnosis, he won plaudits for raising awareness of the disease, campaigning for clubs’ medical departments to implement more cancer checks. Dominic Booth recalls that on the day that Cardiff had secured promotion to the Premier League, he was invited along with a Cardiff supporting friend over the objections of the bouncer to a private club where the players were enjoying a post end-of-season awards bash celebration.[6] He always made time for fans and the media, a quality not often found in the modern footballer.
Goodbye Sol. The wider football community will miss your “beaming smile” as Warnock put it on X. You still had so much to give but what you did give at Leeds United will always be remembered.
[1] Ben Burrows, Former Cardiff, Leicester and Leeds defender Sol Bamba dies aged 39. The Athletic. 1st September 2024.
[2] Phil Hay, Remembering Sol Bamba: No bitterness, no resentment, just strength, bravery, and that glorious smile. The Athletic. 1st September 2024.
[3] Dominic Booth, Farewell to a gentle giant who gave the game grace. Guardian.3rd September. 2024
[4] Phil Hay, op cit
[5] Dominic Booth, op cit
[6] Ibid.
⏩Barry Gilheany is a freelance writer, qualified counsellor and aspirant artist resident in Colchester where he took his PhD at the University of Essex. He is also a lifelong Leeds United supporter.
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