Captain of Nigeria’s bronze winning team at the Rio 2016 Olympics, John Mikel Obi has revealed the poor training conditions the team had to put up with ahead of the tournament.
Mikel who also doubled as the Team Nigeria captain to Rio said the Under-23 team sometimes had no food and training pitch.
The Chelsea FC of England midfielder made the disclosure in a recent interview with Goal.com.
“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 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.
“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,” he said.
Dolapo is a writer and journalist who works with YNaija. He has interests in Christianity, politics and sports.
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