Death of ex-Lustenauer

“I had to watch my brother die!”

Disturbing and heartbreaking: A few months after the tragic death of former Austria Lustenau player Raphael Dwamena, his little (half) brother has caused a stir with a "confession" that sends shivers down your spine! 

As Samuel Dwamena revealed in an interview with the Swiss newspaper "Blick", although he lives in Ghana, he witnessed the death of Raphael Dwamena, who spent six months at the Ländle in 2016/17. "I had to watch my brother die on my phone," said Samuel, for whom the world had collapsed after Raphael suffered a collapse as a player for KF Egnatia in Albania's first division in a clash with Partizani in November and breathed his last in hospital shortly afterwards.

"Whenever he was in Ghana, he called me!"
The two half-brothers - they had the same mother but different fathers - had only met late in their lives. According to Samuel, they met once or twice before Raphael went to Europe, but later the relationship between the two half-brothers became closer. "Whenever he was in Ghana, he would call me. We often spent time together, went out to eat or just talked ..."

Dwamena "exploded" at Lustenau
Raphael Dwamena moved to Red Bull Salzburg in 2014, but then "only" played for the club's second team, FC Liefering. He then "exploded" at Lustenau, scoring 21 times in 22 competitive matches within six months. Often enough for him to move to FC Zurich in the Swiss Super League, where he scored 25 goals in 56 games. However, a move to the Premier League to Brighton then fell through due to cardiac arrhythmia, which was discovered during a medical check.

In 2021/22, Dwamena finally played for FC Blau-Weiß Linz, where he collapsed on the pitch in the cup round of 16 against TSV Hartberg in October 2021. A defibrillator that had been inserted in the meantime saved his life. However, in order to continue his career, the Ghanaian later had his lifesaver removed - with tragic consequences in November 2023 ...