Tiote’s body arrived at Port Bouet airport
in Abidjan, the Ivorian capital, after being flown from Beijing where
he tragically passed away.
Manchester City forward Bony and other
former team-mates of Tiote’s with the Ivory Coast national team carried
the casket on their shoulders.Wilfried Bony was among the pallbearers as a coffin containing Cheick
Tiote’s body returned back to his native Ivory Coast on Thursday
afternoon.
Bony wore a t-shirt emblazoned with
Tiote’s face – which read ‘an elephant never dies’ in reference to the
Ivory Coast national team’s nickname.
Former Ivory Coast national team coach
Herve Renard was also in attendance along with the president of the
Ivorian Football Federation, Augustin Sidy Diallo.
Family members displayed their grief as
Tiote’s coffin was carried through the airport, where fans also came to
pay their respects.
Tiote suffered a suspected heart attack on
June 5 during a training session with his club Beijing Enterprises and
later passed away.
There was a memorial service for him held in Beijing on Tuesday which was attended by his ex-Newcastle team-mate Papiss Cisse, who plays in China with Shandong Luneng.
‘I lived some extraordinary moments with this man and today he’s gone,’ said Cisse at the service as he fought back tears.
No comments:
Post a Comment