The football world mourns the loss of Ghana‘s 28-year-old striker Raphael Dwamena, who collapsed on the pitch during a league match in Albania.
Egnatia’s Dwamena participated in the Saturday game against Partizani.
‘Despite the immediate intervention of specialist doctors he unfortunately passed away,’ said the Albanian Football Federation (AFL).
Dwamena, with nine goals, was the highest scorer in the Albanian league for the season.
The federation has postponed all games slated for Albania this week following the abandonment of Saturday’s match.
‘The AFL expresses its deepest condolences to the Dwamena family and the Egnatia club for this great loss that has shocked the entire Albanian football community,’ the federation added.
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The Ghana Football Association (GFA) said it sent ‘our deepest condolences to his family at this difficult moment’.
‘He served his country well and showed class any time he represented Ghana,’ GFA president Kurt Edwin Simeon Okraku said in a statement.
The proposed £14 million move to Brighton in 2017 for Dwamena hit a snag as he did not clear the medical assessment. Following this setback, he found his way to La Liga with Levante and also had a loan stint at Real Zaragoza.
His collapse in a 2021 cup match in Austria between Blau-Weiss Linz and Hartberg didn’t halt his playing career as he recovered and continued.
Reports shows that he had a heart operation and was fitted with an automatic defibrillator.
‘Our thoughts are with his family and his loved ones in these difficult moments. His legacy in our club will last forever,’ Levante said on social media.
Zaragoza also paid tribute, saying: ‘We are devastated by the sad news of the passing of our former player Raphael Dwamena. You will always be in the memory of Zaragoza´s fans. Rest in peace.’