Lightning Tragedy Claims Yala FC Winger Safwan Awae
The monsoon rain had already turned Santiphap Stadium into a sheet of grey. Players squinted through the downpour, the ball skidding across a soaked surface in Thailand’s far south. Then the sky split.
In a single, savage flash, 24-year-old winger Safwan Awae collapsed to the turf.
By Tuesday night, August 5, 2026, the Yala FC player was dead.
The Thai League 3 winger was struck by lightning mid-match during a Golok Cup regional tournament fixture in the Su-ngai Kolok district of Narathiwat province. What had begun as a routine regional cup tie ended in scenes of panic and disbelief as players and fans watched the storm turn lethal.
Chaos in the storm
Play had continued despite worsening conditions, the rain building into a heavy monsoon downpour. The match pressed on. So did the storm.
Then came the bolt.
Witness footage from Santiphap Stadium shows players suddenly dropping to the ground, some clutching their heads, others frozen in shock, before teammates and spectators sprinted towards Awae. People tore across the pitch, some trying to shield him from the relentless rain, others attempting desperately to revive him on the sodden grass.
Emergency services arrived and rushed him to hospital in critical condition. There was no miracle to be had. Local police chief Thun Sirikhunt later confirmed that Awae had died from his injuries.
Twelve more injured
The lightning strike did not only claim one life. Twelve other players were injured, suffering burns of varying severity as the current ripped through the area of the pitch.
Among the wounded was 22-year-old Malaysian footballer Alif Ezzahan Zulkifli, one of several players taken to nearby Sungai Kolok Hospital for treatment. For those who walked away, the scars will not be just physical.
A regional cup match had become a mass-casualty emergency in seconds.
A dream realized, then taken away
The cruelty of the timing hangs over Yala FC and the wider community.
Awae had signed his contract with Yala FC only the week before the game, a move widely reported as the fulfilment of a lifelong ambition. A young winger finally stepping into the colours he had dreamed of wearing.
He never got the chance to build on that milestone. No settling-in period. No run of games to find rhythm. Just a debut tournament in a local cup, and then a freak act of nature that ended everything.
Yala FC responded with a statement on their official page, expressing deep condolences to Awae’s family as the club tried to process the loss of a player they had only just welcomed into their dressing room.
The Football Association of Thailand (FAT) also issued a formal message, saying it “shares the grief with the family, friends and the club during this difficult time,” as the shock spread beyond Narathiwat and across the Thai game.
A sport in mourning
The incident in southern Thailand lands in a wider landscape of tragedy around grassroots and lower-league football, where dreams are often chased on basic pitches under unpredictable conditions.
On another continent, another family is grieving. In a separate case reported by TUKO.co.ke, Brazilian teenager Micael Leandro da Silva was shot dead shortly after finishing an amateur football tournament in Maceio. His father described his family as “torn apart” after two criminals attacked his son from behind.
Two young footballers. Two different countries. One killed by a gun, the other by a lightning bolt.
Both chasing the game they loved.
As Yala FC and Thai football come to terms with the loss of Safwan Awae, the questions linger over safety, risk, and the fragile line between routine competition and irreversible catastrophe in the sport’s most modest arenas.
