The 30-year-old signed for Chinese Second Division Beijing Enterprises Group FC five months ago.

The Ivory Coast midfielder joined Newcastle from Dutch side FC Twente and scored his only goal in the famous 4-4 draw with Arsenal at St. James’ Park.

He left earlier this year after only making three appearances in the Championship.

Former Newcastle and International teammate Demba Ba appeared to confirm the news when he tweeted “May Allah gives grant [sic] you jannah brother Tiote”.

BREAKING: Ex @NUFC midfielder Cheick Tioté has collapsed during training with Beijing Enterprises and has subsequently died. Aged 30.

— Tim Hague (@TimHagueBBC) June 5, 2017

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Source: Yahoo News

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Christian Atsu says Newcastle United must put their Easter Monday defeat at Ipswich Town behind them quickly as they bid for promotion from the Sky Bet Championship.

Former Town forward Daryl Murphy equalised on the hour for the Magpies after Freddie Sears’ first half opener at Portman Road, but further strikes from David McGoldrick and Emyr Huws won it for Mick McCathy’s men.

United face Preston North End at St. James’ Park next Monday in the first of their final three fixtures of the campaign.

And Ghanaian winger Atsu says Newcastle must “keep fighting” to make sure they’ll have something to celebrate come May.

“It’s frustrating, because before today we’d played really well against Leeds before we conceded that last-minute goal. But we cannot blame anyone, we just have to blame ourselves, correct our mistakes and continue working hard for the future,” he told nufc.co.uk.

“We’re really disappointed we lost this game, but we have three more games to play, we are still in a good position, and we have to keep fighting until the end.

“We didn’t start well, and we gave them confidence. We were not compact. But we have three more games to play and something to fight for, so we have to keep on doing that.”

Atsu added: “No one is happy with today. Everyone is down, but we cannot keep on like this – we have to make sure we change everything with our next game.

“We have to give more, fight, and just give everything in our next game, which is more important now.”
Two of Rafa Benitez’s side’s final three games are at home – something on-loan Chelsea man Atsu hopes, like the fact United have a week to refresh and prepare for the visit of North End next week, will help Newcastle in the run-in.

“It’s always great to play at home,” he said. “But in football, playing home or away is not necessarily an advantage, you just need to keep fighting and concentrate on our gameplan.

I hope and I believe that at the end of the season we will make our fans happy.

“We know the kind of position we are in now, and we know we cannot lose any games. We just have to keep working hard.

“We will have some rest and then the lads who have played a lot of games will have a good recovery, and we will come back strongly again.”

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Source: Newcastle United

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The 16-year-old slotted in Sone Aluko’s backheel after the break and then fired home just before the hour mark.

Tom Cairney had put Fulham ahead with a 25-yard strike into the top corner.

After Daryl Murphy curled in a consolation for the hosts, Tim Ream missed a chance to make it 4-1 when he sent a stoppage-time penalty wide.

Sessegnon appeared to want to take the spot-kick to complete his hat-trick after Paul Dummett brought him down, but USA international Ream took the ball and smashed it past the right post.

Fulham have now won five of their last seven league games and are just two points behind sixth-placed Sheffield Wednesday with a game in hand.

They thoroughly outclassed an out-of-sorts Newcastle side, with skipper Cairney’s second fantastic long-range goal in the space of a few days, after his stoppage-time equaliser against Leeds on Tuesday, setting the tone.

However, it was left-back Sessegnon, reportedly being scouted by several Premier League clubs, who provided two moments of composure to seal three points for his side with his fifth and sixth goals of the campaign.

It was a nightmare afternoon for Rafael Benitez’s Magpies, a year to the day since the Spaniard took charge, with their advantage over third-placed Huddersfield now down to six points.

But over the past 10 seasons in the Championship, an average of 86 points has been enough to gain automatic promotion, so three more wins could be enough to earn an immediate return to the Premier League.

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Source: BBC

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