Czech football player found hanged in his house in Turkey’s southeast

GAZİANTEP – Anadolu Agency

Czech football player Frantisek Rajtoral was found dead on April 23 in his home in the southeastern province of Gaziantep, police said. He was 31.      

Rajtoral, who played for the Czech national team and Turkish Super League club Gaziantepspor, did not attend a training earlier in the day, club chairman İbrahim Kızıl told reporters.

After failing to get a response to their phone calls, concerned teammates and club officials went to his residence in Şahinbey district, where they found the door locked but the lights on, alerting the police, Kızıl said.      

Police officers entered the residence and found him hanged, he said.      

Initial findings point to an apparent suicide. The police have launched an investigation.      

Gaziantepspor captain Elyasa Süme said they lost a well-loved member of the team.    
 
“There is not much to say; we are absolutely devastated,” Süme told reporters.      

The news reverberated across the international football community with an outpouring of sympathy from organizations and teams, including Rajtoral’s former club Viktoria Plzen.      

The team’s Twitter account shared a photograph of Rajtoral captioned in Czech, “Franto, we’ll miss you. The Viktoria family is in mourning.”  
   
UEFA, governing body of European football, posted a message on the social media website, saying it was “saddened to hear” Rajtoral’s death and extending condolences to the family.  
   
Rajtoral played for Plzen for seven years before his move to Gaziantepspor last August.