Hatayspor reported that the player could be rescued alive from the rubble, but now clarifies that he cannot be found in hospitals and points to possible confusion with emergency services
New and negative news about former Málaga player Christian Atsu, hit by the earthquake in Turkey and whose whereabouts have been unknown since three days ago. These are the only solid data on the 31-year-old Ghanaian footballer after the club he belongs to, Hatayspor, retracted the announcement he made that he could be rescued after being trapped under rubble after the building where the building stood had collapsed.
The doctor who works for the Turkish entity, Gurbey Kahveci, explains the grotesque situation. He confirms that they were notified of the rescue and transfer to a hospital by emergency services, but he was not there when they went looking for him. “Unfortunately, we have to accept that Atsu and Taner Savut (the sports director of the team who was also on the same block) have not been found for the time being,” Dr. Kahveci, who was able to contact this newspaper.
Atsu’s representative, Nana Sechere, was very disappointed after receiving this latest bad news. He quickly rushed to update the situation and sent a message to Sur which he also shared on his social networks. And it is that on Tuesday the 7th morning he was also in charge of confirming to this medium that he had received confirmation from representatives of Hatayspor about the alleged rescue of Atsu and now he unfortunately had to correct this information.
“Following yesterday’s update from the club that Christian has been released 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 him. Official updates will be provided as more information comes to light,” said Nana Sechere.
The situation in Hatay is chaotic because communication by road (the tarmac has been lifted) and via the telephone network are practically cut off. For that reason, contacts from abroad with the city in southeastern Turkey are very limited. In fact, the website and social networks of the Turkish club are still outdated after the event.
In Malaga, the blue and white club closely followed the situation. “We hope to receive better news in the coming hours,” they said in a statement from the Martiricos entity about the former blue and white player in 2016 during the second part of the 15-16 season. He joined English side Bournemouth on loan as a reinforcement, and collaborated with 12 appearances and two goals (one of them on his debut at La Rosaleda).
After that, the striker spent five seasons with Newcastle before moving first to Saudi Arabia’s Al Raed before moving to Turkish First Division side Hatayspor ahead of this 22-23 campaign. Just hours before the earthquake, recorded around 05:00 (Hatay time) on Monday the 6th, he was the protagonist by scoring the winning goal for his team in the 97th minute against Kasımpaşa.
Source: La Verdad
I am Shawn Partain, a journalist and content creator working for the Today Times Live. I specialize in sports journalism, writing articles that cover major sporting events and news stories. With a passion for storytelling and an eye for detail, I strive to be accurate and insightful in my work.
