Former Nigerian international, Mikel Obi has disclosed that he fell out with former Chelsea manager, Antonio Conte because he represented Nigeria at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.
Recall that Mikel was one of the squad’s permitted quota of three players over the age limit of 23.
He led Nigeria to win the Bronze medal after defeating Honduras in the Games men’s bronze medal football match at the Mineirao stadium in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, on August 20, 2016.
However, in a chat with Vibe with Five podcast, Mikel stated that Conte isolated him from the first team at Chelsea because he chose Nigeria ahead of Chelsea for the Olympic Games.
“Conte was the reason why I left [Chelsea]. Once he came in, he was like, ‘You’re not playing anymore.’ Then I left. Obviously, when I saw Conte coming into the club, I was like, ‘My time here is done.’
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“The only reason is when he came in, me and Victor Moses and we got invited to the [Nigerian] national team for the Olympics. So, I had a conversation with the club and he [Conte] said, ‘If you go, you’re not playing anymore for the club. Because I’m a new manager, we need to think about the club.’
“And I was like, ‘You know what? I’ve been invited to represent the country at the Olympics.’ And he was like, ‘Yeah, but if you go just know that your time here is done.’
“So, I talked to Victor to stay back. I said, ‘I’ve been here a long time. I’ve won everything that I needed to win. You’re just coming, so you should stay.’ And he accepted. So, Victor stayed and I went. After the tournament when I came back, that was it. He [Conte] never spoke to me. He sent me to the reserve team. I was training with the reserves. Then I started training alone for a while. For like six months I did this.”
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COMMENTS
Always Proud of Mikel it will be hard to replace him just the way he came Silently into the national team. Corrupt NFF and the average coach don’t have eyes for talent even though he said he has eye for defense playing defender yet he is not looking at Anthony Izuchukwu but playing Bassey at CB that he is struggling at both Club and Country in that position.
I am sure those who were saying that Mikel feels too big to play for Nigeria and that he does not accept to play in every game, have now heard loud and clear what he went through. Look at his advice to his fellow countryman, thank God Victor Moses listened to him and he went on to pocket the right wingback position and won the league with Conti. His loss was Moses’ gain.
There are others who honored the national call and lost out completely in their various clubs and the country never bothered about them again.
For me, John Obi-Mikel is the Nigerian professional footballer of all time. He battled for position in the same with a handful of coaches and survived. When Boas came and he was not playing I thought that was the end. Alas, Boas was sacked, Roberto Dimateo took over, he started playing again and they went on to win the first-ever Champions League for Chelsea.
Mourinho,Grant,Scolari,Boas,Di Matteo,Benitez,Mourinho,Hindik,Conte.