“My hotel on fire, I have many players left homeless” – Corriere.it

«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. Should I consider it a fortune? Too many dead, it’s difficult.” Vincenzo Montella has been in Turkey for two years, he coaches Adana Demirspor, a football team that plays in the Super Lig. On Sunday afternoon they left Adana for the match against Umraniyespor, a match obviously postponed like all sporting events. Waking up in the middle of the night in the Istanbul hotel was nightmarish.

Montella, can you tell us about those moments?

“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 shook. Wives and children had left their homes, they were crying. I listened to their screams from cell phones. 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 will do it?

“I’m tempted. I reassured them but now I would like to hug them tightly. I need it physically, and emotionally too. I feel like a lucky man, I came close to a huge tragedy. I would like the warmth of my home or perhaps, unconsciously, to feel safe. Yes, I’m scared. But Turkey is a wonderful land, if I left now it would be like escaping. I would be selfish. Maybe in a few days…”

Back to Adana?

“I’m staying in Istanbul. The hotel where I live has been evacuated: it burned down. Do you understand why I feel like a survivor? Let’s pray, let’s all pray.”

The team?

«The club has made accommodation available to their families in Antalya, the players left here on a special flight. Many no longer have homes.