The last is yet to be heard of Nigeria's
chaotic preparations for Rio 2016 as team
captain, Mikel Obi has revealed just how
much he was involved behind the scenes.
Speaking with goal.com the Chelsea
midfielder said:
"I think if we talk about the money
that I put into the team I think it was
more than [£30,000] 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."
On the now infamous incident which saw the
team arrive Rio with just hours to spare after
haphazard travel arrangements he said:
"There was just no flight provided by the
Nigerian ministry.
"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.
"[After our last minute flight] we got to the
hotel, dropped our bags, grabbed some
sandwiches, something to eat. A little bit of
food.
Then headed straight back to the
stadium because we hadn’t even done our
accreditations then, so we had to go there
and wait in the line, do our accreditation.
"It was absolutely hectic.
I don’t know how
we managed to go onto the pitch and win
that game, it was absolutely mind blowing."
He also spoke of his pride at winning bronze,
Nigeria's only medal at the competition..
"Sometimes I wear my medal around the
house, it gets my missus jealous," he joked
as he showed off his medal. "The kids love
playing with the medal. I am sure one day
they will know what this really means."
Still on the problems the team faced en route
Olympic glory he said: "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.
"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 definitely has a good heart
ReplyDelete