Obituary: Sol Bamba - Former Leeds United and Middlesbrough defender who was 'one of the nicest people in football'

Born in 1985 in the Ivy-sur-Seine suburb of Paris, Bamba began his career in the academy at Paris Saint-Germain, playing several first team games before transferring to Dunfermline in 2006. During his time there he was man of the match in the Scottish Cup Final against Celtic.

He also represented the Ivory Coast in the 2008 Beijing Olympics and went on to play in the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations under manager Sven-Göran Eriksson.

The following year Eriksson moved to Leicester City and Bamba went with him, netting a memorable FA Cup goal against Manchester City which gained him a club record as the fastest-ever debut scorer.

After the 2011/12 season he moved to Trabzonspor in the Turkish Super Lig, and was called up for the 2014 World Cup finals in Brazil.

But it wasn’t long before he was back in Britain, this time with Leeds, where he arrived on loan via the Italian outfit Palermo.

He made his debut with the club in January 2015 in a Yorkshire derby against Huddersfield Town – a 2-1 away victory for the Whites. His first goal came two months later in a 3-0 away victory at Fulham.

After making 19 appearances for Leeds during his loan spell in the second half of the 2014/15 season, Bamba’s move was made permanent and he was named club captain ahead of the 2015/16 campaign by then head coach Uwe Rosler.

He would go on to make 37 appearances as skipper, scoring four goals.

He left Leeds at the start of the following season and moved to Neil Warnock’s Cardiff City, where he claimed another first match goal and settled for five years before following Warnock to Middlesbrough, where he finished his career.

After his initial cancer diagnosis and treatment he turned his attention to coaching, becoming assistant manager at Cardiff City in 2023 and later moving back to Turkey.

Bamba was remembered by former Leeds colleagues following his death as “one of the nicest people in football”. He is survived by his wife Chloe and their three children.