Ex-Chelsea player has uncertain whereabouts after earthquake in Turkey, says agent

The staff of the Ghanaian soccer player Christian Atsu, 31, said on Wednesday (8) that there is still no news about the athlete, from the Turkish club Hataysporm, after the earthquake that shook Turkey and Syria. The information comes less than 24 hours after it was announced that he had been found alive.

While the Ghanaian embassy in Turkey and the African country’s football federation said on Tuesday (7) that the striker was found alive in the rubble of a collapsed building, Hatayspor coach Volkan Demirel and a representative of Atsu said they were concerned about the fate of the ex-Chelsea, Newcastle and Malaga.

“The news I have is not good, it still hasn’t been found under the rubble,” Demirel told the AFP news agency.

“It’s a very distressing situation,” said Gaynor Fascione, Christian Atsu’s image manager who maintains contact with the player’s family in the UK.

“The club cannot find him in the hospitals,” he told AFP. “Everyone is trying to locate the medical facility where he might be.”

Initially, Ghana’s ambassador to Ankara, Francisca Ashietey-Odunton, had stated on Tuesday that Christian Atsu had been found in Hatay.

“Christian Atsu was successfully rescued from the rubble of the collapsed building and is being treated,” the Ghana football federation wrote on Twitter.

Atsu signed last September with Hatayspor, a team from Hatay province, close to the epicenter of the earthquake.

The earthquake, followed by strong aftershocks, killed more than 11,200 people in Turkey and Syria, according to the latest official figures released on Wednesday.

Turkish goalkeeper Eyüp Türkaslan, 28, is among those killed in the earthquake. Malatyasport coach Yilmaz Vural confirmed that the player was buried in the building where he lived in the city of Malatya, 1,100 km from Istanbul.