By
Safiu Kehinde
Ex-Chelsea player and Ghanaian footballer, Christian Atsu, has been found dead amid the rubbles of his collapsed apartment two weeks after he was reported missing.
The 31 year-old late footballer was among the victims of one of the deadliest earthquake in history with 7.8 magnitude which hit South-Eastern Turkey and Syria earlier last week.
Prior to the tragic incident, the former Chelsea, Everton, and Newcastle man plied his trade with Turkish outfit, Hatayspor, scoring a later winner for the team few hours before the incident.
Atsu had reportedly retired to his apartment on the ninth floor after the match with his agent Nana Sechere confirming the player’s presence at home after spending the night out with his friends before the incident.
“The last I heard from him was at midnight on Sunday.
“Christian and his team-mates were playing poker until 3:30 a.m. at a friend’s apartment.
“The journey back to his apartment was around half an hour. He returned at 4 a.m. and the earthquake started around 20 minutes later. I didn’t know anything until I received a call from a club official at 5 a.m, asking if I’d heard from Christian. He told me Christian’s building had been completely destroyed and that they couldn’t get hold of him.
“I was hoping he was awake and that the earthquake hadn’t happened while he was sleeping. He was in an 11-story building and he was on the ninth floor. The club officials were trying to help me find him but it was so hard because, understandably, they were trying to find their own friends and families as well.” Sechere had narrated in a report by Goal.com.
Meanwhile, few hours after the earthquake, a Portuguese outfit, A Bola, reported that Atsu has been ‘found alive’ with an injury sustained on his right foot.
Two days after, Hatayspor Club Doctor, Gurbey Kahveci, debunked the claim that Atsu has been found, revealing that they had gone to the said hospital where he was claimed to be receiving treatment, but he was not found there.
“When we heard the news that he was taken to Dortyol Hospital, we especially went and looked but he was not there.” Kahveci had said.
The current death toll, according to Aljazeera, has reportedly pass 45,000 as the search for survivors continue.
