Kylian Mbappe vows to aid Türkiye quake victims at every opportunity

By Emre Asikci

ISTANBUL (AA) - Paris Saint-Germain's French football star Kylian Mbappe pledged on Wednesday to do his best to help earthquake victims in Türkiye.

"A great tragedy in Türkiye. The football community of the world will gather and support Türkiye. This help is important to me. An extraordinary duty," he said in a broadcasting event to raise donations for the survivors of two back-to-back earthquakes early last month.

He also posted Turkish flag and prayer emojis for Türkiye on Twitter.

"First, of course, people's and children's dreams are very important. I think we can regain the smile of many children," said Mbappe, voicing his pride at being a part of the fundraiser campaign.

The 24-year-old football player joined PSG from Monaco in 2017 to win four French Ligue 1 titles with his current club. He is also the 2018 FIFA World Cup winner with France.

He was speaking on the "shoulder-to-shoulder" aid campaign, broadcast live on many sports channels organized by Türkiye's Ministry of Youth and Sports, the Turkish Football Federation, Super League Clubs Association Foundation, and beIN Media Group.

In addition to TV channels affiliated with beIN, the program was aired live by the Turkish broadcasters A Sports, Sportstv, D Smart Sports, S Sport, Tivibu Sports, TRT Spor, TV8 and Club televisions, TRT Radio, Radio Gol, Radyospor, and League Radyo, as well as many digital media channels are broadcasting live.

More than 45,000 people have died in the magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 earthquakes, which centered in Kahramanmaras and struck 10 other provinces as well on Feb. 6 – Hatay, Gaziantep, Adiyaman, Malatya, Adana, Diyarbakir, Kilis, Osmaniye, Sanliurfa, and Elazig.