“When Christian [Atsu] told me he will never return to Ghana because he knows he will do well and play football to the highest level, I laughed because I thought it was one of those cheap talks,” Abdul-Hayye Yartey, CEO of Cheetah FC has disclosed.
He notes the then teenager had assured him that: “I am going to make you and myself proud.”
Christian Atsu’s manager has said he took what the ex Bournemouth and Hatayspor’s star who also featured for Chelsea and Everton said with a pinch of salt.
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Notwithstanding the fact that Atsu had the qualities to make it in Europe, Mr. Yartey said it wasn’t as easy as he texted him on phone the day he left Feyenoord for Portugal.
Whilst speaking Monday, February 20, 2023, on Onua TV/FM’s Maakye, the morning show, the Cheetah FC boss told Captain Smart “…but in five days, FC Porto expressed interest in him.”
Telling how the late 31-year-old had close ties with his Maker off the pitch, what made Atsu thrive in his career according to the manager is that, “on the field of play, his intelligence, speed and quickness with the sharp left foot made him unique. Aside that, he was mentally strong.”
He also lauded his gratitude for remembering how he helped him to get to where he is, bought him a jeep and capitalised on his visits to the team’s camp to advise the young ones not to forget their roots should they make it one day.
Espousing on Mr. Twasam’s relationship with God, he narrated how a young man from a humble home left Ghana and donated his first three months salary to God after joining FC Porto.
“When he joined Porto, they said they will give him €800 and after his first month, I received an alert from Western Union and I was so happy. Then he called and said I’ve sent you some money and I said yes, I’ve seen it. Then he told me ‘please give the money to the church behind our house’. He had converted everything and knew the equivalence in Ghana Cedis and he asked me to give the money to the pastor.
“So I asked him, ‘but what will you eat? And he said they feed them there and I said what about me and told me he had a covenant with God to give his first 3 months salary to Him so I should just give the money to the pastor. To be very honest it was difficult for me to do but I had to do it because it was a covenant between him and God,” he narrated.
Christian Atsu was found dead Saturday, February 18, 2023, under a rubble in Turkey following an earthquake that struck the southern part of the country and northern Syria.
A search was mounted for the former Everton, Chelsea and Newcastle star for almost two weeks before he was found.
Personnel from the Ghana Armed Forces together with some government officials and the family received his mortal remains at the Kotoka International Airport on Sunday, February 19.
Government assured the family of government’s full support in burying the 2015 AFCON Player of the Tournament.
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By Felix Anim-Appau|Onuaonline.com
