Former Newcastle midfielder Cheick Tiote, 30, who collapsed and died Monday while training with his Chinese club had a child with UK-based ...
Former Newcastle midfielder Cheick Tiote, 30, who collapsed and died Monday while training with his Chinese club had a child with UK-based Zimbabwean lover Nkosiphile Mpofu, also known as Nikki.
The affair with Nikki blew up in the UK media in September 2014 when the married Tiote was playing for Newcastle and living with wife Madah and their two children in a £1.5million mansion in Ponteland.
The Ivory Coast international had reportedly gone off to his native Ivory Coast and married a second woman.
And Nikki, whose baby from a three-year affair with Tiote was then just one-year-old, was not best pleased.
Nikki, then aged 33, promptly ended the relationship, claiming that Tiote had promised to marry her too.
The Zimbabwean reportedly moaned to a friend; “He (Tiote) met my mum and said he’s permitted to have several wives.
“I was comfortable with that. He’s used me like a mop. He’s just a pig.”
Meanwhile, tributes poured in Monday for Tiote with former coach Steve McClaren describing him as the “toughest player” he has ever seen – but also a man with “the most beautiful smile in football”.
“At Newcastle if [Papiss] Cisse and Cheick were smiling I knew the world was OK,” McClaren told BBC 5 live. “He was the kind of player that everyone wants in their team.”
Tiote joined Chinese second-tier side Beijing Enterprises from Newcastle this February. He died in hospital after collapsing at the club’s training ground.
McClaren, who was his manager at both Dutch side FC Twente and Newcastle, added: “I knew him first as a young player at Twente. He was the toughest player I’ve ever seen.
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| Tragic Soccer Ace, Cheick Tiote Had Baby With Zimbabwean Lover, Nikki – New Report Reveals!! |
“Some days we would have to pull him out of training because he was such a ferocious competitor, such a winner. He was a warrior and could play too.
“He loved playing football to look after his family. All the relatives, uncles, aunts, grandparents, they all relied on him to look after them.”
Another former Newcastle manager, Alan Pardew, said he was “devastated” by the news of his friend’s death.
“Cheick was a wonderful presence around the dressing room and his performances on the field often defied belief,” he said.
“None of us will ever forget that incredible day when our Newcastle team came from 4-0 down to draw an unbelievable Premier League game against Arsenal, with Cheick’s incredible goal in the final moments of that game [see top of story] one of the iconic moments in Premier League history.
“I loved him. He was everything that you wanted in a Newcastle player. Life is not fair sometimes and I will remember Cheick Tiote as a giant of a midfielder who I loved to manage. Rest in peace my friend.”
Tiote was part of the Ivory Coast squad that won the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations.
He began his professional career in Belgium with Anderlecht in 2005 before moving to FC Twente, where he made 86 appearances and won the Eredivisie league title in the 2009-10 season under manager McClaren.
Tiote, a defensive midfielder, then signed for Newcastle in 2010 for £3.5m. He joined Beijing Enterprises Group FC for an undisclosed fee in February 2017.
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