Avram Grant, a former Black Stars coach, described how he begged the Israeli rescue team to find Christian Atsu among the rubble.
Avram Grant admitted that he became upset when he learned that a Ghanaian player was trapped in the Turkish earthquake.
He claimed that as soon as he learned that one of his former players, Chrisitan Atsu, was entombed in the debris, his anxiety intensified.
The former Chelsea manager claimed that he quickly alerted the Israeli search and rescue team sent to Turkey to help fetch Christian Atsu after getting in touch with Atsu’s manager as a result.
“I heard the news when it happened on day 1.” I think after the earthquake they said it was a player from Ghana, so I checked and people told me that it was Christian Atsu.
“I spoke to his agent, and we tried to find a way to help his rescue. The rescue team was from my country, so I sent them to check,” Avram Grant told George Addo Jnr.
Israel sent a delegation of more than 160 members of the Israel Defense Forces which included paramedics and Fire and Rescue Service officials, to Turkey to rescue people who had been trapped in the rubble.
The 68-year-old manager stated that he had a big sigh of relief following reports that Christian Atsu had been found, which turned out to be false.
“The news that maybe he was okay and they found him was not true, as you know, but we were so happy to hear it, and then day by day it became worse and worse until we found out,” Avram Grant said.
Grant disclosed that it was hard to deal with the news of Christian Atsu being found dead in the earthquake.
“It’s one of the saddest days that I had in my life you know. To hear that about Christian, 31 years old. Fantastic person — a good man — this is difficult. Difficult for me to speak about him now, he’s part of the past. It was really a shock, a big shock for me” he said.
Officers of the Israel Defense Forces who stepped in to provide assistance to Turkey were able to rescue 19 civilians from the rubble in Turkey.
Christian Atsu’s body was found 12 days after the earthquake occurred in Turkey on February 6, 2023. He was one of 40,642 people who lost their lives in the earthquake in Turkey.
Christian Atsu worked with Avram Grant in the Black Stars and was named to his squad for the 2015 AFCON, where he won Player of the Tournament.