The lifeless body of footballer Christian Atsu appears among the rubble in Turkey

BarcelonaThe lifeless body of Ghanaian footballer Christian Atsu, who played for Malaga in 2016, has been found under the rubble of a building in the Turkish city of Antioch (in Turkish, Hatay), one of the most affected by strong earthquakes that hit Turkey and Syria on February 6. This is what the Turkish media reported after receiving confirmation from Murat Uzunmehmet, his representative.

The 31-year-old forward was currently playing for Hatayspor in the Turkish First Division. Before, he had also played for Porto, Chelsea and Newcastle, among other clubs. Atsu died under the rubble at his home in the Ronesans Residence, where his relatives, who had moved to Turkey, had been following the rescue work for days. The manager of Hatayspor, Fatih Ilek, has explained these days that Atsu had planned to leave the club, since the results were not with him. In fact, he had even bought a plane ticket to France for the same day of the earthquake, but he finally changed his mind after scoring a goal in the last minute of the match against Kasimpasa Istanbul, so who canceled the trip.

Atsu had been missing since the first day of the 7.7-magnitude and 7.6-magnitude earthquakes, which have killed at least 45,000 in southeastern Turkey and northern Syria. Taner Savut, Hatayspor’s sporting director, was also trapped under the rubble of the Ronesans Residence, the same one where Atsu lived, but nothing is known yet. Experts estimate that there are still tens of thousands of corpses under the collapsed buildings.

Accra-born Atsu trained at Feyenoord’s academy in Ghana, before being spotted by Porto. His good games with this club led him to be signed by Chelsea, where he never made his debut, as he would be loaned to several clubs, one of them being Malaga, where he would play 12 games in 2016. In 2015 he started with the Ghanaian national team at the African Cup of Nations played in Equatorial Guinea, and was voted best player of the tournament. Ghana would go on to reach the final, which they lost on penalties against Ivory Coast.

The Turkish Football Federation approved the withdrawal of nine Turkish teams from different categories, including Hatayspor (Super League), which lost players or suffered serious damage due to the earthquakes.