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. More photos after the cut.
“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.”
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