{"id":74371,"date":"2023-02-20T09:45:13","date_gmt":"2023-02-20T07:45:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/christian-atsu-cancelled-his-flight-hours-before-the-earthquake"},"modified":"2023-02-20T12:30:14","modified_gmt":"2023-02-20T10:30:14","slug":"christian-atsu-cancelled-his-flight-hours-before-the-earthquake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.cc\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/christian-atsu-cancelled-his-flight-hours-before-the-earthquake","title":{"rendered":"Christian Atsu Cancelled His Flight Hours Before The Earthquake"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. <\/strong><\/span>Tragic Christian Atsu was scheduled to fly out of Turkiye just hours before the devastating earthquake in the region but cancelled the flight after scoring a last-minute winner.<\/p>\n

The Ghanaian footballer was confirmed dead<\/b> on Saturday following the 6 February earthquake which has claimed more than 45 000 lives and injured thousands more, The Mirror reported.<\/p>\n

Millions of people have been left without water, electricity and heating in southern Turkiye and northern Syria.<\/p>\n

Atsu played for Hatayspor in their Turkish Super Lig clash against Kasimpasa the night before the earthquake and scored a 98th-minute winner, which encouraged him to cancel his 11 pm flight and stay in Turkey.<\/p>\n

Atsu, who spent much of his career in the English Premier League, was planning on visiting his family but delayed his journey after his dramatic goal.<\/p>\n

Hatayspor\u2019s administrative manager Faith Ilek told Turkish outlet Radyospor before Atsu\u2019s death was confirmed:<\/p>\n

He didn\u2019t play against Gaziantep FK, but scored a last-minute goal in the Kasimpasa match.<\/p>\n

Actually, he was going abroad to visit his family. But when he played well and scored, he cancelled his ticket. The earthquake happened on his happiest day. He had a flight at 11 pm. Cancelled the ticket. There was an earthquake at 4 am. Absolutely a tragedy.<\/p>\n

Atsu, who signed for Hatayspor last September, was reported missing within hours of the earthquake. Hatayspor had initially announced that Atsu was found alive and pulled from the rubble on Tuesday, February 7 \u2014 yet this was retracted two days later.<\/p>\n

Atsu played for the likes of Porto, Chelsea, Everton, Bournemouth and Newcastle during his career. He also won 65 senior caps for Ghana and helped his country reach the final of the Africa Cup of Nations in 2015 \u2014 earning him the Player of the Tournament award.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Zimbabwe<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. Tragic Christian Atsu was scheduled to fly out of Turkiye just hours before the devastating earthquake in the region but cancelled the flight after scoring a last-minute winner. The Ghanaian footballer was confirmed dead on Saturday following the 6 February earthquake which has claimed more than 45 000 lives and injured thousands […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":74370,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,16],"tags":[1493,2189,2716,13864,14029,14015,13946,19],"class_list":{"0":"post-74371","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-all-news","8":"category-sport","9":"tag-africa-press","10":"tag-africa-press-zimbabwe-2","11":"tag-chelsea-fc","12":"tag-christian-atsu","13":"tag-fc-porto","14":"tag-newcastle","15":"tag-turkey-syria-earthquake","16":"tag-zimbabwe"},"yoast_head":"\nChristian Atsu Cancelled His Flight Hours Before The Earthquake - zimbabwe<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Tragic Christian Atsu was scheduled to fly out of Turkiye just hours before the devastating earthquake in the region but ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/christian-atsu-cancelled-his-flight-hours-before-the-earthquake\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Christian Atsu Cancelled His Flight Hours Before The Earthquake\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Tragic Christian Atsu was scheduled to fly out of Turkiye just hours before the devastating earthquake in the region but ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/christian-atsu-cancelled-his-flight-hours-before-the-earthquake\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"zimbabwe\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-02-20T07:45:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-02-20T10:30:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/sites\/14\/2023\/02\/postQueueImg_1676873724.94.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"749\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"424\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/christian-atsu-cancelled-his-flight-hours-before-the-earthquake\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/christian-atsu-cancelled-his-flight-hours-before-the-earthquake\",\"name\":\"Christian Atsu Cancelled His Flight Hours Before The Earthquake - 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