Raphael Dwamena

Early years

Born in Nkawkaw, Dwamena played and trained with the Red Bull Ghana developmental program. He helped the RB Ghana U17 team to a silver medal at the 2013 International Tournament in Croix, France, and was named the player of the tournament. Before returning to Ghana, Dwamena and his teammate, David Atanga, first travelled to Austria for a one-week trial with Red Bull Salzburg. Dwamena joined the Salzburg youth team in January 2014, and immediately made an impact on the U18 squad. In one tournament in June, he racked up seven goals in four games. Although Salzburg finished in third, he won the Golden Shoe.

FC Liefering

In July 2014, Dwamena was promoted to FC Liefering, the Salzburg farm team playing in the Austrian Football First League. He made his professional debut on 18 July, where in the 82nd minute of a 3–0 win over Hartberg he was substituted in for Nikola Dovedan. He was one of six Liefering players making their professional debuts that day. He played in one more game that season. During the 2015–16 season, Dwamena made his first start for Liefering on 21 August against Wiener Neustadt. He played the 90 minutes in place of Smail Prevljak. On 18 September, in his fifth straight start, he scored his first professional goal. He scored in a 4–1 win over Austria Klagenfurt.

Austria Lustenau

Dwamena enjoyed a successful half-season with Austria Lustenau, scoring 18 goals in 20 games, before his transfer to FC Zürich.

FC Zürich…

Dwamena did not play for the youth national teams of his country Ghana. He was called into the senior team as part of the 30-man squad for the 2017 African Cup of Nations but was dropped from the 23-man squad. Dwamena made his international debut on 11 June 2017 in an African Cup of Nations qualifier against Ethiopia, where he scored a brace to mark the new era of youngsters being introduced into the national team.

Club

International

Scores and results list Ghana's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Dwamena goal.

Dwamena was diagnosed with a ventricular arrhythmia in 2017. In January 2020, while at Levante UD he had an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) implanted through surgery, which enabled his club to monitor his heart during matches. In October 2020, the ICD showed values which were considered too high, and his club at the time, Vejle Boldklub, withdrew him from team activities as a result. In October 2021, in Austrian Cup match during the first half of Blau-Weiss Linz's game against Hartberg, Dwamena collapsed on pitch, was shocked by the ICD and stabilized quickly.

Death

On 11 November 2023, Dwamena collapsed into sudden cardiac arrest on the field in the 23rd minute of the first half of the round 13 match between Egnatia and Partizani in the Kategoria Superiore, and died on the way to Kavajë Hospital, aged 28. Afterward, all sports events in Albania were postponed or suspended. His cardiologist later disclosed that he had elected to remove his ICD a year prior. He was laid to rest on 16 February 2024 on a football pitch in Accra, Ghana.