Atiba Hutchinson anxiously picked up his phone, hoping to see a message that, to his concern, wasn’t there. He put it down before picking it up again, almost instinctively.
It was early in the morning for the 40-year-old Canadian and Besiktas midfielder in his Istanbul home. He was surrounded by his wife and three children. So, it wasn’t his immediate family he wanted to hear from, but a brother all the same.
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News spread quickly throughout Turkey on Feb. 6: a violent and potentially catastrophic 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit the southern and central part of the country as well as northern and western Syria. The death toll of which has surpassed 35,000 people.
Hutchinson was 1,000 kilometers away from the brunt of the devastation, but having spent nearly a decade playing in Turkey — where earthquakes are not uncommon — his apprehension swelled.
“It makes you think twice about everything,” Hutchinson said Thursday.
When he picked up his phone yet again, he sent a quick note to family back in Brampton, Ontario: “I’m fine, but I don’t know yet about Sam.”
His Canada national teammate and friend, Sam Adekugbe, lived just over 200 kilometers from the epicenter of the earthquake where he plays for Hatayspor.
The epicenter in Gaziantep, Turkey, received the worst of the damage from what “has become one of the deadliest natural disasters of the century,” according to the New York Times,
Hutchinson knew cellular and internet service might be spotty after an earthquake. The normally calm, cool midfielder’s anxiety increased, again.
He finally exhaled hours later when he saw Adekugbe’s name pop up on his phone with a request to FaceTime. Adekugbe called Hutchinson before anyone else as he surveyed the destruction around him.
“Unfathomable,” Adekugbe later told reporters, his face lacking the boisterous smile he usually wears.
Since John Herdman took over as Canada men’s national team head coach in 2018, no word has been more commonly used by the team in media appearances than “brotherhood.”
It was used to define their collective approach as a team. They hoped it would rid them of the cliques that dragged their team down in past World Cup qualifying campaigns. And they hoped, by seeking to lift each other up rather than worry about who was taking whom’s spot in the lineup, team success would follow. It did in the form of qualifying for the 2022 World Cup.
Yet, on a bleak and tragic February day, two members of that team faced an entirely different kind of brotherhood.
One by one, Adekugbe said good night to his teammates. A handful of them, including former Newcastle winger Christian Atsu, had congregated at Adekugbe’s home after their 1-0 win over Kasimpasa. Filled with the typical postgame adrenaline, players, some of whom live in the same complex as Adekugbe, gathered to eat and enjoy each other’s company.
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But finally, late into the night, Adekugbe was alone on his couch with a candle glowing on his coffee table.
When he first began shaking before 5 a.m. local time, he was convinced he was having a panic attack. He’d dealt with increased nerves that occasionally caused him to lapse into intense self-doubt in the past, though recently he began relying on meditation to steady his mind.
There would be no opportunity for Adekugbe to meditate, however, as the shaking intensified. Behind him, he heard the crash of plates onto his kitchen floor. He looked around to see nearly all of his belongings including his table and his television collapse, and the candle hit the floor.
Adekugbe had never experienced an earthquake before.
“That’s when I realized what was going on,” he said.
Adekugbe dashed up to extinguish any flame from the candle on the floor, and then continued running as the shaking continued. He ran out of his home, and on to the street in the lightning and freezing rain.
The first thing Adekugbe saw was the road split in two.
“Something you can’t really explain,” he said.
The state of the devastation revealed itself as Adekugbe spent hours looking for teammates in darkened apartments.
“It felt like a movie: collapsed buildings, fires, people yelling, people crying, people digging through the rubble, broken pieces of houses,” Adekugbe said, his voice still distant, sitting beside Hutchinson as he reflected.
When he finally had a moment to himself, Adekugbe did not call his parents in Alberta, Canada first. Instead he dialed his teammate, his brother, Atiba Hutchinson.
Adekugbe wanted to understand the scale of the destruction, but more importantly, he needed to hear from Hutchinson, a person that Adekugbe previously told The Athletic is “the guy (Canadian players) all look up to.”
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Adekugbe turned his phone outwards to reveal a city ripped apart. As he did, Hutchinson’s normally placid appearance gave way. Adekugbe was safe, which was what mattered, but if he needed anything, Hutchinson was there for him.
Once the internet service kicked in, a few of Adekugbe’s teammates agreed that with their houses “upside down,” it was best to gather at Hatayspor’s training ground. They piled into a car and made the 20-minute drive towards the center of Antakya. Adekugbe saw more roads split, bridges broken and high rise apartments and office buildings completely collapsed.
“Families looking for loved ones,” Adekugbe remembers seeing. “Something you’d never really expect.”
Once Adekugbe arrived at the training ground, he called his parents to let them know he was safe. But in the hours and days that followed, he learned not every member of Hatayspor was as fortunate: as of Monday, the team’s sporting director Taner Savut is still missing, as is Atsu, who was previously incorrectly identified as safe. Adekugbe said one member of Hatayspor’s equipment staff has been reported dead.
The initial earthquake, and subsequent aftershocks, including a 7.5 magnitude event, is the deadliest in the country since 1939. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, only three earthquakes of 6.0 or larger magnitudes have occurred within 250 km of the Feb. 6 epicenter since 1970.
The tentacles of the tragedy extended into the rest of the team, as Adekugbe learned people who work in the backroom staff had either lost family members or required critical treatment from a medical infrastructure struggling to cope with the widespread damage.
That’s when Adekugbe, again, thought of Hutchinson and wanted to be near him.
When Adekugbe felt adrift in his career, beset by injuries, he sought Hutchinson’s counsel. When he first received an offer from Hatayspor in 2021, he leaned on Hutchinson for advice. Hutchinson reminded Adekugbe of his capabilities, affectionately referring to his younger teammate as “Alaba” as he always did, a comparison to one of the best left backs of his generation, David Alaba.
“When Atiba speaks, he’s speaking wisdom,” Adekugbe told The Athletic ahead of the World Cup.
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And when Adekugbe rose to prominence during the 2022 World Cup qualifying campaign, it was Hutchinson who would smile quietly to himself, knowing that the rest of the Canadian soccer world was learning what he already knew.
So when Hatayspor’s manager Volkan Demirel, a famed former goalkeeper with Istanbul-based side Fenerbahce, called his former club to ask for support, Adekugbe knew there was only one place he wanted to be.
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Fenerbahce arranged for a private jet to take the Hatayspor players who wanted out of southern Turkey to Istanbul. Hutchinson offered up his home to Adekugbe as long as he needed it.
Eyes heavy without sleep, and after stuffing everything he could into a few suitcases, Adekugbe boarded a flight on Feb. 7 to Hutchinson’s home. They hugged a little tighter than they had in the past.
Adekugbe is unsure if he’ll return to the city he called home for nearly two years.
On Feb. 9, Ali Koc, the president of the Turkish Union of Clubs, said Hatayspor had withdrawn from the Turkish Super Lig this season. While soccer is secondary in a time of tragedy, the decision throws Adekugbe’s future further up in the air.
According to a source with knowledge of Adekugbe’s situation, Hatayspor players and representatives have been told by the Turkish Football Federation that they are free to sign with any team interested in signing them to a short-term loan until the summer. Crucially, any foreign players would not count as foreign players when signing on loan deals, which would potentially increase their options.
The source said Adekugbe has been in discussions with Turkey’s Istanbul-based teams about a loan deal and that it is likely he will sign with one of those teams.
Adekugbe’s contract with Hatayspor runs until June 30, 2024.
Hatayspor players have been informed that the likelihood of the club continuing into next season will be re-evaluated in the summer, according to a source, meaning Adekugbe’s long-term future in Turkey is still to be determined.
While there were offers for him in the January transfer window, including from two prominent Turkish teams, Hatayspor set Adekugbe’s price too high for some of the European-based and Major League Soccer teams interested in his services. A source, who could not speak publicly on any offers, told The Athletic that Adekugbe still has serious interest from multiple MLS sides and remains very high on three teams’ discovery rights lists.
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But for the time being, Adekugbe’s focus is not on soccer: while his family is still worried about him, he has no immediate plans to leave Turkey.
Instead, his focus is on paying forward the goodwill people like Hutchinson have shown him.
According to reports, the Turkish government is struggling to assist those hardest hit. With the help of more than 238,000 relief workers, Turkey’s national emergency management agency, AFAD, has distributed a large quantity of tents, according to the New York Times. But some still lack shelter due to the massive reach of the destruction.
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“It really starts to hit home,” Adekugbe said, his voice trembling, “when you see the agony and desperation on their faces.”
Hutchinson noted how the cold has gripped that part of Turkey recently. So to help, Adekugbe is working with Hutchinson and partnering with the Canadian Red Cross to raise funds for those in need.
(Top photo by Joe Klamar/Bruno Fahy/Belga Mag/Burak Kara/Getty Images; Design: Sam Richardson)