Turkish basketball player, Nilay Aydogan found dead among the rubble following devastating earthquake

Turkish basketball player Nilay Aydogan has been found dead following last week’s devastating earthquake in Turkey, the sport’s federation in the country has announced.

Aydogan, 30, who played for Turkish Super League side Cankaya University, had reportedly gone to visit her grandmother in Malayta when the devastating earthquake struck, collapsing the apartment block.

The basketball player and her grandmother were found dead among the rubble, with the search continuing in hundreds of Turkish and northern Syrian settlements to try and find people still alive.

In a statement, the Turkish Basketball Federation said that they had learned of the news with ‘deep sadness’.

‘We have learned with deep sadness that Nilay Aydogan, the national player of Cankaya University, one of the ING Women’s Basketball Super League teams, lost her life in the earthquake disaster,’ they said.

‘May God have mercy on the deceased, we offer our condolences to her family, relatives and basketball community.’

Aydogan played for a number of teams across her career in Turkey, including Osmaniye, Yalova and Mersin in the Turkish second division.
She played for Canik Belediye during the 2017-18 campaign, before moving onto Cankaya.

Having enjoyed a season with Cankaya, she moved to Mersin for a season in the second tier, before returning to the Ankara side. 
She had also enjoyed appearances for the country’s youth teams earlier on in her career.

Her final game for Cankaya came in a victory against Hatayspor days before the earthquake struck.

Aydogan is the latest athlete in Turkey to have lost their life in the tragic natural disaster to hit the country last week.

The search goes on for Christian Atsu, the Hatayspor player, who went missing following the earthquake last week.

Mixed reporting from a number of outlets last week, stemming from statements being released saying he had been found and was in hospital, led to some people to believe he had been found. That turned out to not be the case.

She went on to describe the various bits of conflicting information regarding his whereabouts as ‘quite shocking’.

The earthquake has left more than 30,000 people dead and thousands more displaced, with smaller settlements, towns and cities all lying in ruin.