Sports

Footballers Who Fell Under Spell Of Witch Doctors

Published

2 years ago

November 14, 2023

“It was like a spiral,” said Gilles Yapi Yapo, a former Ivory Coast international football star who said he was cheated out of 200,000 euros ($213,000) by a witch doctor.

“You are like a slave and it can be really damaging,” the 41-year-old said of the two years he spent under the spell of a traditional healer, or marabout.

The midfielder, who now manages a team in the Swiss second division, was “going through a difficult period” playing for the French Ligue 1 side Nantes when his uncle recommended he see a healer in Paris.

“I wasn’t really attracted by the occult,” Yapi Yapo told AFP, “but growing up in the Ivory Coast going to a marabout was normal, and it isn’t seen as bad as long as you are not looking to harm anyone.”

The healer said his family had been “cursed”, which was stopping him “succeeding and being happy” and prescribed making “sacrifices to counteract the curses”.

Sacrificing a cock, goat or ram started at 500 euros and began to climb to “colossal sums”, he said.

Then one day it became darker, “something like black magic”, Yapi Yapo said.

“The marabout made me believe that the spirits he worked for liked me and wanted to make me rich.

“That was the bait,” he said.

– ‘Sacrifice his son’ –

The sacrifices needed to attain these riches cost “40,000, 50,000, then 60,000 euros”.

When the footballer got financially stretched, the witch doctor said that “‘if he has no more money he’ll have to sacrifice his son’. I had the strength to say ‘stop’ and I never went back to him,” Yapi Yapo said.

In two years, he said he was conned into paying 200,000 euros, and got “nothing positive back”.

“He knew how to put me into a spiral and I lost the ability to think clearly…”

The footballer said his Christian faith helped give him the strength to put an end to the hold the marabout had on him.

Some witch doctors “threaten vengeance”, he said, “so there is a fear of breaking away from them.”

Joel Thibault, an evangelical pastor to several top athletes in France, has had to deal with the “disastrous consequences” of footballers and basketball players caught in similar circumstances.

“I know there are clubs that allow players to go to Senegal after they get injured because doctors can’t treat them. They come back and play with amulets and protection belts.”

Those who go to healers in France have told him “that when things are going less well they are told to make more sacrifices, to pay more for them, and then it spirals,” Thibault added.

“I see the damage… players who are depressed and who have had suicidal thoughts.”

– ‘He became like a god’ –

Another Ivory Coast-born footballer, Cisse Baratte told AFP how he went through the same hell.

When he began playing for a top club in Abidjan at 16, he was told that healers could make him perform better and protect him “from jealousy”.

Sports

Super Falcons To Face Portugal Ahead Of WAFCON 2025

Published

15 hours ago

June 22, 2025

Editor

Nigeria’s Super Falcons, aiming for a 10th continental gong at the 13th Women Africa Cup of Nations taking place in Morocco next month, will take on the senior women national team of Portugal in a friendly match in Lisbon on Monday.

The Falcons’ contingent flew out of the Federal Capital, Abuja to Casablanca on Sunday morning aboard a Royal Air Maroc flight, and then travelled to Lisbon.

After appearing at the Portuguese and Moroccan embassies during the week as part of the procedure for visa processing, the nine-time African champions trained at the MKO Abiola National Stadium on Thursday evening, and at the Turf Arena on Friday and Saturday, in preparation for Monday’s encounter.

Goalkeepers Chiamaka Nnadozie and Tochukwu Oluehi, experienced defender Osinachi Ohale, midfielder Christy Ucheibe and forward Francisca Ordega were among those that worked out under the guidance of Head Coach Justine Madugu and his assistants.

US-based defender Michelle Alozie, Saud Arabia-based Ashleigh Plumptre, captain Rasheedat Ajibade and fellow midfielders Halimatu Ayinde, Jennifer Echegini and Toni Payne, as well as forwards Esther Okoronkwo, Rinsola Babajide and Chinwendu Ihezuo will team up with the team at the training camp in the Portuguese capital.

Monday’s encounter will take place at the Estádio José Gomes in the Amadora precinct of Lisbon, and will
commence at 7pm Portugal time (same time as in Nigeria).

Ghana’s Black Queens are also in the Falcons’ radar, as both teams are set to clash in another friendly match in Morocco on Sunday, 29th June, days before the kick-off of the continental finals.

The Falcons tackle Tunisia, Botswana and Algeria in group B of the competition, with the Larbi Zaouli Stadium in Casablanca as venue.

Sports

Tobi Amusan Hits Season’s Best At Paris Diamond League

Published

2 days ago

June 21, 2025

Editor

Nigeria sprint icon, Tobi Amusan has emerged as the winner of the Diamond League trophy for a third consecutive time.

World record holder Tobi Amusan delivered a powerful performance at the 2025 Paris Diamond League on Friday, recording a season-best 12.24 seconds in the women’s 100m hurdles to secure a strong second-place finish.

This marks the Nigerian star’s second-fastest time ever, trailing only her world record of 12.12s set in 2022.

Amusan surged in the final stretch, narrowing the gap on the USA’s Grace Stark, who had an explosive start and clinched victory with a lifetime best and meet record of 12.21s—making her the fifth-fastest woman in history over the distance. Jamaica’s Ackera Nugent followed closely in third, clocking 12.30s.

The race in Paris was a thrilling continuation of Amusan’s resurgent 2025 campaign. After beginning the season with a pair of fourth-place finishes in Xiamen (12.74s) and Shaoxing (12.66s), she rebounded in style, winning the Rabat leg of the Diamond League in 12.45s—a season-best at the time and a meet record.

Paris marked Amusan’s fourth Diamond League appearance this season, and the consistency she’s building suggests she is rounding into peak form just as major international competitions approach.

She faced a stacked field that included the likes of former world silver medallist Keni Harrison, Jamaican rising talent Ackera Nugent, Poland’s Pia Skrzyszowska, Dutch national champion Nadine Visser, Devynne Charlton of the Bahamas, and the in-form Diamond League leader, Grace Stark.

Despite the fierce competition, Amusan showcased her experience and rising form, finishing strong and scoring valuable points in the race toward the Diamond League Finals in Zurich.

She now sits fourth on the Diamond League leaderboard with 10 points, trailing Stark (23), Danielle Williams (15), and Marione Fourie (12).
(VANGUARD)

Sports

Enabulele Hails Edo-born Athletes’ International Feats

Published

3 days ago

June 19, 2025

Editor

The Executive Chairman of the Edo State Sports Commission, Hon. Amadin Desmond Enabulele, has expressed delight over the outstanding performance of Edo athletes representing Nigeria on the international stage.

Enabulele, while describing the athletes as worthy ambassadors of the state and the country in general, singled out the impressive participation of seven Edo kickboxing athletes in Team Nigeria at the African Union Kickboxing Championship in Cameroon.

In a congratulatory message signed by his media aide, Edoko Wilson Edoko, Enabulele lauded the accomplishments of Flora Ugwunwa and Christopher Michael, who clinched gold medals at the 2025 World Para Athletics (WPA) Grand Prix in Tunis, Tunisia.

INFO DAILY reports that Ugwunwa bagged gold in the F54 women’s shot put and discus events, while Michael emerged victorious in the T11 men’s 100m event.

He said: “The remarkable performance of the country’s para-athletes in Tunisia, where Nigeria finished second overall out of 42 participating nations with 10 gold, 6 silver, and 3 bronze medals, is highly commendable.”

The Edo sports boss, while recalling the impressive performance of Team Edo during the recently concluded National Sports Festival (Ogun 2024), where Edo kickboxers secured 20 gold medals, said the feat which earned many of them national call-ups.

Enabulele reaffirmed the Commission’s unwavering commitment to grassroots sports development and consistent support for para-athletes and other promising talents who continue to bring pride to Edo State and Nigeria.

“I’m proud of our athletes. Flora, Christopher, and our kickboxing team have done exceptionally well. This is what we want to see—Edo athletes in large numbers representing Nigeria at global events,” he emphasized.

Enabulele added that the achievements of Edo athletes reflect the deliberate investments in sports development by the current administration.