Legendary Nigerian footballer dies of high blood pressure
Former Nigeria U-20 international and FIFA World Cup silver medalist, Gift Atulewa, is dead.
He died in the early hours of November 12 from high blood pressure complications.
Confirming his demise, the spokesperson for the Delta State Football Association, Azuka Chiemeka, said the 38-year-old prolific forward died at about 7:am.
“We just buried the wife last month, which may have contributed to this development. He has blood pressure issues but he has been managing it, just a day before yesterday, the condition became bad and he was taken to the hospital, they noticed he had malaria but aside from that, the blood pressure kept going up, and we lost him this morning by 7:a.m,” he said.
Mr Azuka reflected on Atulewa’s recent involvement in football, saying; “As we are speaking, there is an ex-international football tournament going on in Delta State and he is part of the ex-Uwei where he comes from, he is part of their team, he scored the first goal of the tournament from his wonderful free kick that he is known for, he scored that goal like three weeks ago when the competition began.
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”Additionally, Atulewa had recently returned from Cote d’Ivoire, where he completed a coaching course. Unfortunately, he won’t be putting to use the certificate obtained.
A talented player, Atulewa began his career with Bayelsa United F.C. before moving to Ocean Boys F.C. and later Warri Wolves F.C., where he featured prominently.
He was a member of the Nigerian U-20 team that participated in the 2005 FIFA World Youth Championship in the Netherlands.
Sadly, Atulewa becomes the third member of the 2005 U-20 set to pass away, following Olufemi Adebayo and Isaac Promise.
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