Five Footballers Who Were Taken Far Too Soon | OneFootball

Nearly two weeks have passed since the tragic car accident in Spain which killed Liverpool icon Diogo Jota and Penafiel midfielder André Silva. The two were brothers.

Global tributes were paid and tears shed for the young men who were taken before their time. Unfortunately, this is not the first time a soccer player has passed away during their playing career. Here are five players who died unexpectedly when they should have had years ahead of them:

Cheick Tiote

Newcastle United supporters will have fond memories of the Ivorian midfielder. Tiote devoted seven years of his life to the club and made more than 150 appearances. His screamer which helped the Magpies recover a four-goal deficit against Arsenal has not been forgotten.

Tiote’s trophy collection speaks for itself. He won the African Cup of Nations, league titles in Belgium and the Netherlands, and he left halfway through the season when Newcastle United won the Championship in 2017.

Tiote sadly died that same year, after collapsing while training with Beijing Enterprises Group, a now dissolved club in China. He was only 30 years old.

Anton Walkes

A graduate of the Tottenham Hotspur academy, Walkes was born and raised in London. He made a surprise loan move to Atlanta United in 2017, but was then loaned to Portsmouth in January the next year. After the season concluded, he joined the EFL side on a permanent basis.

However, Walkes returned to Atlanta in 2020 and would go on to remain in MLS for the remainder of his career. He signed for Charlotte in December 2021, the club he would represent until his untimely passing.

The Englishman was in Miami at the club’s 12-day training camp, when he was involved in a two-boat crash, which claimed his life when he was only 25 years of age. He left behind his partner and their young daughter Ayla.

Christian Atsu

Another player who is well known for his time at Newcastle, Christian Atsu spent much of his career in the Premier League. He was evidently a talented player while a youth at Porto, and he would go on to earn a move to English giants Chelsea.

Unfortunately, he did not spend a lot of time in London, because was loaned out five times between 2013 and 2017. In fact, Atsu never made a competitive appearance for the Chelsea first team.

His international career was more fruitful, as he won the Player of the Tournament and Goal of the Tournament awards at AFCON 2015, whilst representing Ghana. He was a penalty shootout away from receiving a winners’ medal, but Ghana were narrowly defeated by Tiote’s Ivory Coast.

After a successful loan spell at Newcastle, Atsu was signed permanently in 2017 for £6.2m ($8.3m) and his club career was back on track. He played more than 100 times over a span of five years in the Northern English city, before leaving on a free transfer to join Saudi Pro League side Al-Raed.

Atsu struggled with injury and moved to Hatayspor in Turkey after one year. He was sadly killed in the Turkey/Syria earthquakes in February 2023, just one day after scoring a stoppage time winner against Kasimpasa.

During his life, Atsu was an ambassador for a charity supporting disadvantaged children and he spent thousands to free people from his home country who were jailed for stealing food. He was survived by his wife and three children.

George Baldock

This is a player who will always have a special place in the hearts of Sheffield United supporters. Baldock came through the MK Dons academy and he made over 100 appearances for his boyhood club, but he was loaned out five times.

He joined Sheffield United in 2017 when the Blades had just been promoted to the Championship and this would be the beginning of the greatest chapter of his career. Within three years, his team had secured a top half finish in the Premier League.

Baldock played more than 200 matches for Sheffield United, but his final season at the club was affected by injuries. He signed for Panathinaikos last summer, in what was the first time he would play his club soccer in Greece, despite playing for their national team.

In October last year, Baldock drowned in the swimming pool at his home in Athens, aged 31. The cause of his drowning was not known, but a heart condition was suspected. A day after his death, Greece defeated England in the Nations League and goalscorer Vangelis Pavlidis paid tribute to Baldock by lifting a shirt with his former teammate’s name on it.

Panathanaikos received praise for continuing to pay Baldock’s wage for the length of his three year contract to his fiancée in order to support his one-year-old son.

Junior Malanda

Of all the players to have been listed, Malanda was the youngest to lose his life. Like Diogo Jota, the 20-year-old was killed in a car crash. He was on his way to meet his Wolfsburg teammates for a training camp.

Malanda had a bright and promising future ahead of him, having signed for Wolfsburg in 2013. He had also represented Belgium at youth level, including the nation’s under 21s squad.

Before joining Wolfsburg, Malanda played for Zulte Waregem in the Belgian Pro League. He helped the side to a second place finish in his first season at the club, making 36 appearances.

This saw them qualify for the Champions League and when he was loaned back the year after, he played in that tournament, as well as making eight Europa League appearances and scoring two goals.