Former Fiorentina, Milan and current Adana Demirspor boss Vincenzo Montella has spoken in detail about the earthquake in Turkey, the situation in the country, his players and himself.
The earthquakes in Turkey on Monday are believed to be the strongest to hit Turkey since 1939, with the death toll now having crossed 4000. Now a crisis, the earthquakes have affected many across the country.Â
Montella has been in Turkey for about two years now and on Sunday afternoon, the Adana team and staff had left for a game against Umraniyespor. The match has now been postponed due to the crisis, with the league also temporarily suspended.
Montella recently spoke to Corriere della Sera and he gave his views about the situation in the country and how he is dealing with it. The Italian stated:
“My players were woken up by family members who were on the street. It was raining heavily in Adana and an apocalyptic scenario of still undefined proportions was foreshadowing before their eyes. The epicenter of the earthquake is two hundred kilometers away but the tremors were continuous and the houses were shaking.Â
“Wives and children had left their homes, they were crying. I listened to their screams from cell phones. It was difficult to keep calm, even we felt tremors all the time. The news of the earthquake went around the world, my children from Italy call me every hour, they want me to come home.”
He spoke about the Adana players and their situations further, saying: “The club has made accommodations available to their families in Antalya, the players left on a special flight. Many no longer have homes.”
Montella considers himself lucky to have survived, saying: “Perhaps yes, miracles exist. The chances that I was not in Adana during the earthquake were very low. Instead I am here in Istanbul. A thousand kilometers from the collapsed buildings, the dead and the rubble . I stand here, still in disbelief, praying for the victims. I’m alive. Anguished but alive.”
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Kaustubh Pandey | GIFN
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