Hatayspor manager Volkan Demirel opens up on Turkish earthquake

Volkan Demirel often has trouble sleeping after an evening game. The former Turkey goalkeeper, now manager of Hatayspor, will stay up to analyze everything he has just seen.

Little wonder, then, that he hadn’t succeeded much, as the evening of February 5 was ticking towards morning. Demirel tried to digest a dramatic 1-0 win over Kasimpasa, courtesy of Christian Atsu’s stoppage-time free kick.

“There was a love in the stadium that probably hadn’t been felt for hundreds of years,” Demirel told Mail Sport. “If there was a day when I had to die after that and be happy, I couldn’t think of a better one.”

The ‘intensity’, the ’emotion’. And then, back at his hotel, the chills. Some signs are unmistakable: ‘The building will sway back and forth,’ explains Demirel. So he knew almost immediately that the first of two deadly earthquakes had hit this corner of southern Turkey.

But this time? “It started to feel like it was coming up from below.”

Demirel’s wife and two daughters, aged nine and five, were with him. They don’t live in Hatay. Normally they would fly back to Istanbul. But this night, the snow left them near the epicenter of one of the worst human tragedies of this century.

“My reaction was to jump on top of my youngest daughter so that if something fell, it would fall on me instead of her,” the 41-year-old explains. “My wife jumped on our eldest daughter.”

After about 100 seconds of fear and rage, Demirel led his family out of the hotel. Then came another shake that lingered for a while. Finally, they headed for the Hatayspor training ground.

“It should only be a three-minute drive,” says the manager. Not on that night. Not now that everyone was also pouring into the street. Not when buildings fell like dominoes and victims piled up. “Normally I’m a very calm person, but that’s the night I cried the most in my entire life,” says Demirel.

No part of Turkey saw such destruction as Hatay and 100 days later the death toll in the country is close to 50,000.

Amongst them? Hatayspor sports director Taner Savut. Two youth players. An academy coach. The Cook. Another member of Demirel’s backroom staff. And Atsu. The body of the 31-year-old – once of Chelsea, Everton and Newcastle – was found 12 days after disaster struck. Thirteen days after his first goal for the club.

“We got a free kick in the last seconds. Normally in those scenarios I would say, ‘Place the ball!” Demirel recalls. “Christian decided to shoot on his own initiative… I ran up to him after he scored and lifted him up. I was so happy for him.’

The winger had been waiting for this chance. “Unfortunately, I didn’t know this would be the last time I could keep it in the air. And celebrate with him. And be beside him.’

Demirel speaks from Istanbul, but he still makes the 650-mile journey to Hatay every week. Offers from other clubs have been received and rejected. “I promised I wouldn’t leave or abandon them,” he says. “I have to go back and help.”

Families live in containers. Buildings remain too vulnerable to enter. Hatayspor’s stadium became a haven for the victims.

Demirel has emerged as an unlikely hero, but his own face shows signs of struggle. Not for the first time he lets his beard grow as a ‘symbol’ of suffering. “I do that when people I love – one of my players or colleagues – are having a hard time,” he explains. “I know it won’t do anything.” Yet he knows that words and gestures matter. Therefore, the question he finds most difficult to answer these days is simply: How are you?

“I can’t say I feel good,” says Demirel. “Because I know what people go through… but I can’t say I’m bad because I’m alive.”

He has a hard time remembering those first few hours after the earthquake, when many of his players and staff gathered on the training ground. Some didn’t – the missing included four coaches and Atsu. So Demirel went hunting.

“We tried to go around town, but it was very busy,” he says. “We tried to get onto the highways and main roads, but they were all closed.”

Fortunately, over the course of that long night, most of the people were accounted for and about 100 people huddle together.

The next morning, Demirel put out a heartbreaking call – crying and begging on camera for supplies. “Wanted to try and get the team and coaches to Istanbul in the days that followed,” he explains. “We had to bring the team coach. But we couldn’t find gas anywhere.’

There was another problem. “One of my coaches — his wife and a year-old baby — had been hospitalized overnight. We went to get the baby, but of course we needed medicine, milk, all that sort of thing.’

Luckily, they found all those supplies and eventually some fuel. But a few days later, Demirel returned to resume the doomed search for Atsu and his sporting director.

“If you have hope, it’s possible to keep going, but if you don’t and you hear the news, it feels like you’ve come to the end of the road,” he says.

Atsu had only been in Turkey for a few months, but he was battling injuries and playing time. The winger had threatened to leave before that late winner.

“He’d had a few bad mornings,” says Demirel. “This was his chance.” The coach already knew his character. “Earlier in the year, on New Year’s Day, Christian had come in with gifts,” he recalls. He said, “I want to help people who work on the training field. I want to give something back to them.” This is the kind of man he was.’

No wonder the club is considering taking his shirt off. Several of Atsu’s teammates, who survived the earthquake, have been loaned out. Others have been allowed to leave. Some bear such mental scars that they have been given time off.

“I’ve learned that every day you go to bed, every day you lay your head on the pillow, it could be your last,” says Demirel.

Soon Hatayspor will try to rise from the rubble of destruction. Preparations for next season are in full swing. They were among the teams that fell out of Turkey’s top flight after the earthquake.

Demirel recently returned from Germany where he went to thank the country’s football community for all they have done.

“Bayern Munich, Borussia and Mainz in particular have launched a campaign to try to help,” he says.

The hope is that Hatayspor will play a friendly match there this summer.

For now, however, the club is looking for kits and a new home. Demirel claims that nearly half a million residents of Hatay fled to Mersin for a few hours. He hopes the team can be stationed there.

Those who have stayed have tried to rediscover some shoots of normality. “Life must go on,” says Demirel. “God willing, we’ll be able to get them back in a good position and prepare well, because it’s important to bring a little bit of luck to people,” he added.

‘In Turkey, football is a huge part of the culture. People wait for the game until the weekend – it’s the highlight of their week. We want to go beyond all the effort and struggle to try and give people their joy.”