The body of footballer Christian Atsu who died in the Turkey earthquake has been sent back to his home country Ghana.
The plane landed in Accra late on Sunday night, and members of Ghana’s armed forces took his body away.
On Saturday, Atsu’s body was found under his home in the southern part of Turkey. He used to play for the Hatayspor team.
The winger played 65 times for Ghana’s national team and helped them get to the final of the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations.
The 31-year-old has also played for Everton and Newcastle, both of which are Premier League teams.
Ghana’s Vice-President Mahamudu Bawumia said these things at the Kotoka Airport in Accra, the capital city: “Every day that went by, we prayed and prayed, hoping against hope. But, unfortunately, when he was found, he was gone.”
Mr. Bawumia also said that the late soccer player was very popular and would be missed very much. “It’s a very painful loss,” she said.
He said that Atsu would be buried in a way that was “fitting.”
Atsu had not been seen since his apartment in Antakya, which is in the hard-hit province of Hatay, fell down during the 7.8 magnitude earthquake on February 6.
The Hatayspor club said at first that the player had been saved with injuries, but this was later changed, and the player’s agent confirmed on Twitter on Saturday that the player had died.
It is known that over 44,000 people have died in south-eastern Turkey and northern Syria.
Ghana’s foreign ministry said that the footballer’s body was taken from Turkey by his family and Ghana’s ambassador to Turkey, Francisca Ashietey-Odunton.
At 19:25 GMT, the plane landed in Accra, where family, government officials, and people from the Ghana Football Association met it.
Later, the coffin was going to be taken to the mortuary of a military hospital.
People have said nice things about the player who died.
On Saturday, his wife, Marie-Claire Rupio, and their three children joined fans in Newcastle for a minute of silence before his team played Liverpool in the Premier League. From 2016 to 2021, Atsu played for Newcastle.
The face of Atsu was shown on the big screen, and fans in the stands chanted “you’ll never walk alone” before applauding.
Sunday, after scoring a goal for Dutch team Ajax, Ghana captain Mohammed Kudus took off his jersey to show a white shirt with the words “RIP Atsu” written on it.
Arms Around The Child, a charity, hailed Atsu, who has been an ambassador for the group since 2016. The charity said that Atsu was the “main beneficiary” of a school in Ghana that helps children who have been abandoned, orphaned, chronically ill, or rescued from trafficking.