Ankara, Feb. 18 (BNA): Ghanaian international striker Christian Atsu, who played for English Premier League clubs Chelsea and Newcastle, was killed in the earthquake that struck Turkey. He was 31 years old.
Search teams have recovered Atsu’s body in the rubble of a luxurious 12-storey building where he lived in the city of Antakya, Hatay province, his manager said Saturday.
Atsu joined Turkish club Hatayspor in September and scored the winning goal for his new team in a home league match against Kasimpasa on February 5, just hours before the earthquake struck in the pre-dawn hours of February 6.
Antakya, the city where Hatayspor is located, is located in the southern region of Turkey worst affected by the earthquake.
The death toll from the 7.8-magnitude earthquake in southeastern Turkey and northern Syria passed 43,000 on Friday.
Hatayspor said Atsu’s body had been returned to Ghana. “There are no words to describe our grief,” the club wrote on Twitter.
Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo posted a picture of Atsu on his official Twitter account and wrote: “Ghanaian football has lost one of its best staff and ambassadors, and it will be difficult to replace them. He will be sorely missed.”
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