“I Put More Than £30,000 into Dream Team For #Rio2016” : Mikel

Super Eagles’ Captain, John Mikel Obi has disclosed that he put his own money to cater for the Dream Team VI in the just concluded Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

He made this known in an interview with Goal.com recently.

“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.

Speaking on what happened on the day the team left Atlanta for Brazil, 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.

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 accreditation 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.

Read the Full Interview HERE.