Gift Atulewa, a former Nigerian youth international footballer, has reportedly passed away at the age of 38.
The Delta State Football Association’s spokesperson, Azuka Chiemeka, confirmed the tragic news, stating that Atulewa succumbed to complications from high blood pressure early Tuesday morning.
Reflecting on Atulewa’s recent involvement in the sport, Chiemeka shared in a report published by PremiumTimes, “As we speak, there’s an ex-international football tournament happening in Delta State, and he was part of the team representing his hometown, Uwei.
He even scored the tournament’s first goal three weeks ago with a signature free kick, showing the skills he was known for.”
In addition to playing, Atulewa recently returned from Cote d’Ivoire, where he had completed a coaching certification course. Unfortunately, he will not have the chance to pursue his coaching career.
“We just buried the 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,” the Delta State FA spokesperson reportedly said.
