Kings Football Show🇬🇲🇸🇳🇬🇧

💔 Sol Bamba was diagnosed with cancer on Christmas Eve 2020. Less than two years later, he scored a penalty at Old Trafford to help Middlesbrough knock Manchester United out of the FA Cup. But his journey was far more than football. At 35, the Cardiff City defender was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma despite spending his life fit and healthy. “How can I be 35, fit and healthy, and all of a sudden have cancer?” “I’ve been healthy all my life, playing football, then all of a sudden you feel vulnerable and weak.” His biggest fear was telling his children. His nine-year-old daughter asked him the question every parent dreads. “Are you going to die?” “I did not know what to say.” His first round of chemotherapy left him so exhausted that he wanted to quit. “I’m not going for the second round.” “The way I was, in that moment, it was awful.” But he returned for treatment, determined to keep fighting. Cardiff stood by him, and teammate Sean Morrison reminded him how much he meant to the club. “We miss you, because of who you are and what you do.” “I realised what I’ve got here.” By April 2021, Bamba was back training with his teammates. “It’s pure joy.” “I’m not over the line yet and still have one chemo session to do.” “The last couple of months have been very difficult for me and the family, so to be ahead of schedule and out there with the lads enjoying myself has been unbelievable.” A month later, he returned to professional football as a substitute against Rotherham. “I was absolutely buzzing.” “It was a couple of seconds but the fact that I was back on the pitch with everything I’d been through the last four months, it was pure joy.” Cardiff released him that summer, but Bamba refused to let cancer dictate how his career ended. “I feel like I can’t finish like that.” “I want to finish on my own terms.” Neil Warnock gave him another chance at Middlesbrough. “I didn’t expect him to look as sharp as he has done after everything he’s been through.” “He’s done remarkably well.” Bamba earned a contract, and Warnock made it clear he had been selected on merit. “I didn’t pick him on sympathy, I picked him on ability.” “I thought he was super.” Then came that unforgettable night at Old Trafford in February 2022. Bamba scored in the penalty shootout as Middlesbrough eliminated Manchester United. “All the way through my treatment it was for moments like this.” “When I was going through chemo, I never thought for one minute I would come back and play.” “And I never thought about scoring penalties at Old Trafford. Nights like that seemed a million miles away.” He retired in 2023 and moved into coaching. In 2024, he became manager of Turkish club Adanaspor. Tragically, on 31 August 2024, Sol Bamba died aged just 39 after his cancer returned. His wife, Chloe, later wrote: “For the last few years I have watched Sol fight his cancer head on with an astounding mental and physical strength and stoicism.” “Unfortunately, it was never a fair fight.” And her final words were a heartbreaking tribute to the man she loved: “It was an honour to have loved and been loved by Sol.” “What a gift, what a gift, what a gift to have been loved by him.” 💔🕊️