For Christian Atsu, the terrible suspicion has become a certainty: the Ghanaian soccer professional died in the devastating earthquake in Turkey. He was 31 years old. His manager Nana Sechere confirmed this via Instagram. Accordingly, the body of the Hatayspor winger was found under the rubble of a collapsed house in Antakya. Atsu has been missing since the February 6 earthquake. His Turkish advisor Murat Uzunmehmet also announced the sad news via Twitter.

At the time of the natural disaster, Atsu was in a 12-story luxury condominium complex that was only built in 2013. The collapse of the plant caused massive outrage in the Turkish media, as building regulations were obviously violated. The contractor responsible was arrested four days after the quake at Istanbul Airport. Apparently he wanted to flee to Montenegro to avoid prosecution.

Atsu moved to Europe from his native Ghana as a teenager and initially joined FC Porto. He then spent a long time in the English Premier League, where he was under contract with Chelsea FC, among others. After five successful years at Newcastle United, he first moved to Saudi Arabia in 2021 and only signed a contract with the Turkish first division club Hatayspor in September 2022. Overall, he slipped on the national jersey of Ghana 60 times.

Read stern: More than ten days have passed since several earthquakes shook southern Turkey and northern Syria. Well over 35,000 victims have been counted so far. How is the situation on site? Ten questions for stern correspondent Jonas Breng, who is experiencing the development on site.