Friday Olokor, Abuja The Federal Government and private organisation should embark on deliberate steps to provide life insurance for Nigerian footballers, UK-born ex-England star of Nigerian descent, John Fashanu has said.According to him, he returned to Nigeria because of his patriotic spirit because he was born first a Nigerian.“There is nothing for Nigerian players when they get to 30, when they are retiring.

I was very lucky because I got a terrible injury and it gave me insurance for the rest of my life.But I was 32 when I was insured.If I had not had that injury, maybe it would have been very difficult,” he told The PUNCH.

Fashanu stated this when the Chief of Defence State, Gen.Gabriel Olonisakin, represented by the Chief of Defence Civil/Military Corporation, Rear Admiral Obed Ngalabak, led some top officers on a courtesy visit to business mogul and Founder of Ned Nwoko Foundation, Prince Ned Nwoko in Abuja.While raising concerns over the challenges faced by some Nigerian football legends, who despite their sacrifices for the country, have been confronted with difficult times after retirement, he said the life insurance scheme would enable footballers end well after retirement.

Fashanu said that if not for the horrific injury, which halted his career at 32, which placed him on a life insurance, he would probably have been battling with some difficult situations like some others who returned back to Nigeria.He said, “We’ve got to step up here if we want to have world-class players.We’ve got to look after our young players, we’ve got to look after our senior players.

That is not done in this country at the moment.This is very sad and this is one of the reasons why you see that whenever our Nigerian players leave the country for greener pastures, they don’t want to come back.“I’m probably one of the only ones who came back; and probably Jay-Jay Okocha and Nwankwo Kanu.

We’ve got to embrace our sportsmen and women who go abroad and then come back.There should be something for us when we come back or else nobody will want to come back.“Private insurance companies, government insurance companies; there must be insurance companies which will insure the life of a professional footballer, very important, otherwise, they are not going to come back.” Fashanu also spoke on how football could be used to support the eradication of malaria in Nigeria and Africa at large.

“Everybody loves sports, we can all work to put an end to malaria, we’ve got to raise the tempo of what is going in in sports.So many of our football players come down not with football injuries but from malaria.I think we should have a few matches, have something that can show everybody in Africa this is what we mean to get rid of malaria,” he added.

“The fight against malaria means a lot to me.We are looking at eradicating malaria in Africa starting with Nigeria.There are 54 countries in Africa, six of them are already malaria free and we are trying to do what they did.

The first one will fumigating Nigeria, it involves everyone because every home, every environment has to be fumigated.” Copyright PUNCH.All rights reserved.This material, and other digital content on this website, may not be reproduced, published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed in whole or in part without prior express written permission from PUNCH.

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