Four days after being caught in the earthquake that struck Turkiye and parts of Syria, frantic efforts are being made to find the whereabouts of Ghanaian international football star Christian Atsu. This is because there are conflicting reports about whether or not he has been rescued from the rubble.
Christian Atsu
Nearly 48 hours after he was supposedly pulled from the wreckage, Atsu’s agent, Nana Sechere, is pleading for prayers to help find him. The Ghana Embassy in Turkiye claims it is collaborating closely with rescue teams to find the Ghanaian winger’s location.
As of right now, nobody is sure where the player is because neither Ghana’s ambassador to Turkey, Francisca Ashietey-Odunton, nor representatives of Atsu’s Turkish club, Hatayspor, claim to have found the hospital the player was allegedly transferred to or been able to get in touch with him.
The player has not been found, according to a tweet yesterday morning from Nana Sechere.
“We have not yet confirmed Christian’s whereabouts, despite the club’s report from yesterday indicating that he had been taken out alive.
As you can imagine, his family is still going through a terrible time, and we are doing everything we can to find Christian. Let’s pray for his recuperation and location, he wrote on Twitter.
The 31-year-old was residing on the ninth story of the club’s apartment building when the deadly earthquake struck, according to Nana Sechere, who is in London and not Turkiye with the player.
The agent stated, “The last time I spoke to him (Atsu) was at midnight on Sunday, following their 1-0 victory over another team, in which he scored the game’s lone goal.
The 31-year-old winger’s whereabouts were still unknown as of yesterday’s deadline.
Last Monday, word spread that Atsu, a few of his teammates, and officials were among the hundreds of people who were buried alive beneath the debris as a result of two extremely destructive earthquakes with magnitudes of 7.8 and 7.5 that occurred within a short period of time in southern Turkey and northern Syria.
One of Turkiye’s worst-hit regions was Hatay, the home of Hatayspor, along with Antalya, Diyarbakir, Kahramanmaraş, and Adyaman.
Despite the fact that more than 9,000 people had been recovered alive from the wreckage since the tragedy, the dead toll continued to rise, according to numerous media outlets.
11,000 people have died in both Turkiye and Syria, and rescuers say there is very little prospect of discovering survivors under the wreckage after three days.
Hospitals have been crowded with injured survivors, and those who managed to leave unharmed are currently looking for lodging in hotels or government shelters. Others are huddling in malls, stadiums, mosques, and community centers to stay warm over the winter.
Only vehicles delivering relief are permitted to enter Kahramanmaraş, Adyaman, and Hatay in order to expedite the effort, and Turkiye has proclaimed a state of emergency in ten provinces to manage the response.
Where can Atsu be ?
In addition to Ozat, the vice president of Hatayspor, claiming that Atsu had been located, the player’s teammate and close friend Kerim Alici verified on Turkish television that Atsu had been saved alive.
The confusion over whether or not the player has been found was brought on, according to Ozat’s explanation from yesterday, by his allegation being a case of mistaken identity.
Taner Savut, the club’s sporting director, as well as the player were still missing, according to Hatayspor’s team physician, Gurbey Kahveci.
“We went and looked especially after we heard that ‘he was transferred to Dortyol Hospital,’ but he wasn’t there.
Savut and Atsu were not detected, which is something we currently accept, according to Dr. Kahveci.
“Don’t you think I would tell them about this if they were in the hospital? Please don’t confirm that he made it. There is no need to write this as he lived “said Demirel.
In light of the conflicting allegations, Mrs. Ashitey-Odunton added that the Embassy had to contact Turkey’s Foreign Ministry for assistance in locating the player since “as we speak we have gone through a list of nearly 200 health facilities and none has a list of patients that has Atsu on it.”
We’re working with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to find his hospital since we don’t know which specific hospital he’s been transferred to and because Ankara, where we are, is rather remote from the scene of the incident and we are constrained in our movement.
Are the Ghanaians in Turkey safe ?
She claimed that only individuals providing emergency services were allowed to walk around, which prevented representatives of the Ghanaian embassy from going to Hatay.
She stated that all other Ghanaians who had registered with the Embassy and were in the impacted areas were safe, with the exception of Atsu’s circumstance.
These include additional Ghanaians who were unharmed by the catastrophe, including five female football players who all competed in the Ghana Women’s Premier League: Priscilla Okyere, Suzy Dede Teye, Regina Antwi, Gifty Assifuah, and Queenabel Amankwah.
Worry
Many Ghanaians and members of the football community are once again experiencing anxiety as a result of this most recent development, and they are once more reacting on social media.
Christian Atsu and Pray for Atsu have been trending on Twitter.
Galaxy International School, a Turkish-established institution in Ghana, has expressed its concern for the footballer and his family, saying it is “pray[ing] for him and all others still waiting in the wreckage to be rescued.”
The school’s administration released a statement in which it expressed its sadness over the disaster and compassion “to all Turkish and Syrian families who have lost their loved ones in the awful earthquake.”
We pray for the safety of the administration and all Syrian and Turkish citizens, and we also wish those who have been hurt a swift recovery,” the statement said.