Chelsea midfielder Mikel John Obi has revealed he had to foot the bill to help Nigeria win an Olympic bronze medal after the the country’s football federation failed to take responsibility.
The 29-year-old had to put up more than £30,000 to organise travel for the team, pay for food and book training pitches ahead of the trip to Brazil which ended in his country’s 3-2 win against Honduras – providing the only medal for Nigeria at Rio 2016.
With lack of support from the federation for their training camp in Atlanta – where they won a gold medal in 1996 – Mikel took matters into his own hands to help the team realise their Olympic dream, with help from coach Samson Siasia.
“I think if we talk about the money that I put into the team I think it was more than [£30,000],” Mikel told Goal.
“But we just had to do it.
“I said to myself, ‘I won’t let this happen. If I can help, I’ll try to help’. Sometimes there was no food, sometimes there was no pitch to train on, there was no bus to go to the training ground. So all of this was what me and the coach had to figure out, and get money together.
“I came to the camp. I sat down with the boys in Atlanta and I could see the frustration, the pain and the anger. Their aim was to play in the Olympics, their goal was to play in the Olympics.
“And for me being there and seeing what they are going through, they are young boys, they want to start their career and someone in the ministry is trying to crush that dream.”
“There was just no flight provided by the Nigerian ministry,” he added. “We planned to leave three or four days before the tournament, but we ended up leaving the day of our first game. It was a difficult one. I don’t think I have ever seen something like that before, it was crazy.”
Nigeria beat Sweden, Colombia, Japan and Denmark in Rio, before a 2-0 defeat to Germany saw them in the bronze medal play off against Honduras.
“We had lots of problems outside the pitch, but I always told the boys that
you shouldn’t let that affect what we came here to do. We still want to achieve what we came here to do. We still have to represent our country and play for ourselves and our family and the people of Nigeria,” he said.
“So if the ministry don’t want to take responsibility, we have to make sure we play for ourselves and our country. The boys understand that and we made sure they went along with my message that I kept putting across to them every single day and we managed to achieve what we did achieve.”
Mikel, who has 75 caps for his country, joined Chelsea in 2006 and had a 90% average pass accuracy for the Blues last season.
Due to his Olympic campaign, he is yet to appear for the side this season under new manager Antonio Conte as he missed victories over West Ham United, Watford, Bristol Rovers and Burnley as well as the draw with Swansea City.
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