Born and bred in Ada, a fishing community in the Greater Accra Region, Christian Atsu Twasam never had good education till he was 8-years-old when his older siblings asked him to join them in the capital.
“My brother took us to Nkwantanan D/A Primary School, I had an interest in football so during break time and after school, I used to play with my friends barefooted,” Atsu said in a video sighted by GhanaWeb.
According to him, his mother was compelled to enter into so many trades in other to put him and his other siblings through school.
The Black Stars player said, “My mother couldn’t pay our fees, there were times we were sacked from school. My mother sold smoked fish, swept on the road for a living. She was in her 50s whiles she was doing all these.”
After discovering his talent at a young age, one of his brothers took him to a juvenile football team, Peace FC, a football club in Achimota, where his football journey all begun.
However, things were not rosy for Atsu as he had to jog from Madina to Achimota each day to go and train with his colleagues since he didn’t have money for transportation.
“I often used the money my mother gave me for food as transportation to training grounds. But on the times when I didn’t have money, I mostly jogged from Madina to Achimota and back. One day, a man gave me a ride whiles jogging in the dark. He told me his wife insisted on that decision but I hope he sees this video and recalls,” Atsu told Crime Check TV.
Atsu later joined Fayernord Academy where he later schooled and played football in camp, however, after his first move to Sporting Lisbon wasn’t successful, he joined Cheeter FC.
One day, Atsu returned home from camp, his family had moved from their wooden structure at Madina to live in Legon. According to him, he was in high spirits when he was told to come to Legon only for his hopes to be dashed.
“I wanted to give my family a surprise visit but when I came home, I found no one, so I phoned them and they told me to come to Legon. I asked that they show me the place.”
“When I got there, it was an uncompleted building and they had placed the mattress in the toilet room.”
“I still know the building at Mangoase in Legon, at the time I was building my house I told my friends I will complete mine before that uncompleted building and it was so. So that was where we used to live but I only stayed there for 2-3 days because I was a hustler, I never had one home.”
Atsu later got his breakthrough to move to FC Porto in Portugal before going on to play for clubs like Chelsea, Everton, Malaga, Newcastle United among others.
Ghana international, Christian Atsu