Segun Odegbami has lamented the state of Peter Fregene, former Super Eagles goalkeeper who is currently battling for survival at a private hospital in Delta State.
Making appeal for public assistance, Odegbami regretted the current state of the Super Eagles Eagles legend who manned the sticks for the former African champions between 1960 and 1980.
He wrote: “I wake up frustrated this morning. The attached picture was taken yesterday afternoon at Obule Medical Centre in Sapele, Delta State.
“It is of Peter ‘Apo’ Fregene, a 1968 Olympian, and former goalkeeper who kept goal for Nigeria’s national football team across three decades, 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.
“I am frustrated because I am publishing this ‘horror’ picture, wishing I have the capability to do what needs to be done for a colleague without having to resort to yet another public appeal to the same few Nigerians that have, through the years, intervened in the matter of ill-health of a few retired, suffering Nigerian football heroes.
“By now, we must have exhausted any remnant of ‘goodwill’ we have with Femi Otedola, Mike Adenuga, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Babatunde Fashola, Benson Ejindu, Allen Onyema, and a few other Nigerians that often came to the aid of a few lucky sports heroes several times in the past. Even if they have not complained, we are ashamed to go back to them again.
“Why don’t we have, or why can’t we set up, even on our own, a simple welfare scheme for active and retired athletes across all sports in the country, to take care of our declining health in old age, long after our sports careers?
“Doing so does not require knowledge of rocket science. What are needed are the will, hard work and a few good and committed people of integrity.
