Nigerian player, Leke James has described the death of his room mate, Cheick Tioté as “a big shocking moment”.
Leke James and Tioté were teammates at Chinese second tier club, Beijing Enterprises until last month after the Ivorian died from a cardiac arrest.
In a chat with brila.net, Leke described the final moments of the former Newcastle midfielder.
The former Nigerian junior international said they had just left the club house while in the middle of a discussion.
He explained that as the duo were running late for training they promised to continue afterwards but minutes later Tioté was fighting for his life.
“That’s one incident I don’t want to witness again by God’s Grace. It’s really shocking and unbelievable for me. I’ve been hearing about such and I never believed I will witness it one day.
“It’s so so crazy. I’m just getting off that shock, I haven’t been my self since that time. But I’m getting off it.
“We were very close, he was my room mate. Even on that day we were gisting, chatting and having fun.
“Before we left for the pitch for training we had some discussions, but decided to stop because we were running late for training and hoped to continue after training, not knowing he wouldn’t come back to end that discussion.”
“It was crazy, we were on the pitch, the medical team was working on him trying to bring him back. He was struggling between life and death. It was horrible honestly
“Before the ambulance came, he was still struggling to breathe. Took him to the ambulance and rushed him to the hospital.
“When we got to the hospital it was another story. We went into the emergency room and just saw him lying lifeless. It was unbelievable for me, one big shocking moment, It was crazy honestly. But God knows best,” Leke narrated.
Tioté’s death on June 5th shocked the football world, with messages of condolence poring in from EPL clubs, former teammates as well as fans globally.
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