Christian Atsu’s former local manager, Abdul Hayye Yartey, has revealed the late footballer donated his first FC Porto salary of 800 hundred euros to a church in Ghana.
In 2009, Atsu joined the youth team of Portuguese giants FC Porto after being scouted from Yartey’s Cheetah FC.
Yartey said, Atsu, who died at 31 years, was devoted to his religion and always tried to convince other mates to join him at the church.
“When Christian went to Porto and succeeded in the trials, Porto went on to pay him 800 euros a month,” Yartey explained in an interview with TV3.
“So I received 800 euros through Western Union from Christian and I was so happy thinking he had sent me money, but his call followed up.
“He said the 800 euros he had sent was equivalent to x amount of Ghana cedis, which he ordered me to give to the church.”
Tributes have been pouring in from all walks of life in solidarity with his family. The family has set March 4 for his one-week observation.
Meanwhile, Ghanaian actor and producer, Samuel Ofori says he owes his life to the late Ghanaian footballer, Christian Atsu, who came to his aid in the nick of time.
The actor revealed for the first time that he would have been long dead but for a single phone call Atsu placed to him right on time when he was about committing suicide.
In a self-taken video, Mr Ofori revealed at that time, he was depressed following some false accusations against him in Germany which made him trend for the wrong reasons.
According to him, Ghanaians descended heavily on him without hearing his side of the story, and he felt his good reputation was over and he was better off dead.
However, as he sat thinking of how to end it all, he said Atsu called to check up on him and inquired about the multiple headlines he read on social media.
“I was so frustrated at that time that I neglected all calls, but when I saw his, I answered. He was worried about me and asked for my side of the story. After I narrated everything to him, he motivated me to ignore because it was a trivial issue. What he did not know was that if that call had not come, I would have drank something poisonous. Just the single call changed my life.”
Not only did he comfort him, Mr Ofori said Atsu requested for his Ghanaian wife’s number and explained the entire situation to her.
Due to Atsu’s intervention, the matter was quickly resolved and he went on to make the most of his life.
On how his relationship with Atsu started, the filmmaker said Atsu called to compliment his talent after watching his 2019 movie, Make Up Girls starring Jessica Williams.
Since then, they were the very best of friends until Atsu lost his life under the rubble after an earthquake in Turkey.
