A one-week memorial service has been planned for late Ghanaian football Christian Atsu.
This follows discussions between the deceased’s family, the Ministry of Sports, and the Ghana Football Association (GFA), during which Deputy Sports Minister Evans Bobie led members of both organizations to express condolences to the footballer’s family.
The one-week celebration will begin on March 4, 2023.
Atsu was one of over 46,000 people killed in an earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria.
Atsu was a professional footballer who primarily played as a winger, although he was also deployed as an attacking midfielder or left back.
Atsu began his international career with FC Porto, also spending a season on loan at Rio Ave. In 2013, he was signed by Chelsea for £3.5 million, who subsequently loaned him to Vitesse Arnhem, Everton, AFC Bournemouth and Málaga.
After spending the 2016–17 season on loan at Newcastle United, he completed a permanent transfer to the club in May 2017. Following the end of his four-year contract he played for Al Raed in Saudi Arabia and Hatayspor in Turkey, where he died in the 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquake at age 31.
