Christian Atsu was a truly gentle soul. The tributes in death would have been the same as in life. The confirmation of his passing at the age of 31, killed by the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria, has not given rise to excessive eulogy. These words would have been written and spoken one month ago, one year ago, five years ago, even.
It was then, during his time at Newcastle United, that I sat down with Atsu at the club’s training ground for an interview, just the two of us. He left me with this overriding impression - that his talent was not a gift to football, or even to himself, but a means of helping others.