The former Newcastle United player Cheick Tioté has died aged 30.
Tioté collapsed during a training session with the Chinese League One side Beijing Enterprises on Monday. He was subsequently rushed to local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Tioté’s agent Emanuele Palladino confirmed the death of his client in a short statement and asked for the privacy of the player’s family to be respected.
Tioté began his career for the Ivorian minor league side FC Bibo. He later moved to Anderlecht as a teenager, before moving to FC Twente in 2008.
Newcastle signed the player from the Eredivisie side for a fee in the region of £3.5m in August 2010. He would go on to spend six seasons playing in the Premier League with Newcastle, playing for the club over 150 times.
In February 2017, he departed for Chinese second-flight side Beijing Enterprises for an undisclosed fee.
Tioté represented his country 52 times and played at both the 2010 and 2014 Fifa World Cups.
