By Mark Ogagan
Nigeria has lost yet another ex-international as former Flying Eagles and Under23 start, Gift Atulewa was pronounced dead on Tuesday morning. He was 38 years old.
Spokesperson for the Delta State Football Association, Azuka Chiemeka, confirmed the sad news to local media sources.
According to Mr. Chiemeka, Atulewa succumbed to complications from high blood pressure around 7 a.m. on Tuesday.
“We just buried his wife last month, that may have contributed to this development. He has blood pressure issues but he has been managing it, just 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, we lost him this morning by 7 a.m.” Chiemeka said.
He 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 one the participating teams. In actual fact he scored the first goal of the tournament from his trademark free kick. He scored that goal like three weeks ago when the competition began.”
Additionally, Atulewa had recently returned from Cote d’Ivoire, where he completed a coaching course.
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 Nigeria Under20 set to pass away, following the demise of Olufemi Adebayo and Isaac Promise.
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