Former Ivorian international defender Emmanuel Aka, nicknamed 'the War' for his approach on the field but was also a teacher who quoted Plato off it, died on Friday at the age of 69 from diabetic complications, his family said. Aka was a central defender for Stella Club of Adjame and USC Bassam as well as for Ivory Coast, and his uncompromising style earned him the nickname in French: "Aka la Guerre". He was also a French teacher and a sports consultant and a figure in Ivorian football. He was a supporter of Didier Drogba's ongoing campaign to become president of the Ivorian Football Federation in the election scheduled for September, posting regularly on Facebook in support of the former striker. The Ivorian press on Friday recalled one of his posts in which he compared former players to the inhabitants in Plato's 'Allegory of the Cave'. "These characters were so accustomed to darkness that they were resistant to everything that was done to bring them back to light, to freedom, preferring to remain in a situation of servitude." "For a very long time, players have been accused of being ignorant, people who are incapable of thinking. Unfortunately, the situation we're in now seems to prove the proponents of this thesis right." str-pgf/pb/dmc