The earthquake in Turkey and Syria has so far claimed over 11,000 lives. There is great chaos in the epicenters of misfortune, as the case of thirty-one-year-old Ghanaian Atsu proves. The news about his rescue has been reported twice to the media, but according to the latest information, everything is different.
Hatayspor vice president Mustafa Özat told Radyo Gol radio on Tuesday that Atsu had been found and taken to hospital. But the joy was premature. “We still don’t know where he could be. We don’t know anything at all,” Reuters quoted club director Volkan Demirel as saying on Wednesday.
Hatayspor representatives searched for Atsu in the hospital where he was supposed to be taken. However, he could not be found among the survivors, and the possibility that he was transferred to another medical facility is also very unlikely.
Following yesterdays update from the club that, Christian had been pulled out alive, we are yet to confirm Christian’s whereabouts. As you can imagine, this continues to be a devastating time for his family and we are doing everything we can to locate Christian. pic.twitter.com/WKteG3l4cp
– Nana Sechere (@iAmNana7) February 8, 2023
The player’s agent Nana Sechere also denied Tuesday’s good news on Wednesday. “I guess you can imagine how devastating it is for his family. We are doing everything we can to find him,” he wrote on Twitter.
The 31-year-old Atsu moved from Porto to Chelsea in 2013, but did not play a single competitive game for them, after a series of loan spells he finally landed at Newcastle three years later, where he stayed until the 2020/21 season. And after a short engagement in Saudi Arabia, he subsequently got to Turkey.
During his representative career, he won, for example, silver at the African Championship, where he was declared the best player of the tournament and also dominated the poll for the best goal of the championship. He also represented his country at the 2014 WC.
