Former Super Eagles star John Obi Mikel has revealed how he was disrespected by former Chelsea manager Antonio Conte before leaving for the Chinese Super League.
Mikel player across a number of managers including Jose Mourinho, Luiz Felipe Scolari and Carlo Ancelotti, and was an ever-present member of the squad.
During the club’s most successful era in their history, winning the Premier League, FA Cup, League Cup, Champions League and Europa, Mikel featured in the defensive midfield position as the likes of Frank Lampard, Michael Ballack and Michael Essien ventured further forward.
But everything came to halt after Conte arrived in 2016.
With the Rio Olympics going ahead, Mikel had been called up to the U-23 Eagles squad headed by Samson Siasia.
But the competition coincided with the start of the Premier League season and the new Italian manager told the then-29-year-old that he would not play under him if he left.
Also Read: Update: 23 Players Now In Super Eagles Camp, Iheanacho Still Expected
However, the Chelsea hierarchy gave Mikel their blessing to leave – but Conte stuck to his word and he never played for the Blues again, leaving for Tianjin Teda in January.
Recalling what transpired between him and Conte Mikel told the Athletic : “This guy (Conte) who has just walked in the door for five minutes is telling me I had to choose.
“He was saying, ‘If you do that, you won’t be a part of this team’.
“I spoke to the club and told them that I wanted to go.
“The club respected me because of what I had done for them and how long I’d been there.
“So off I went and I felt punished for that. I came back and I didn’t make the squad. I was never in the squad list on match days again.”
Tianjin TEDA was his destination after the Chelsea board scrapped his contract out of respect for his many years but Mikel and Conte would clash one more time before he left.
He added: “The funny thing is, just before the January window was going to start, he came up to me and said ‘I want a meeting with you’.
“This was after making me train on my own for months, treating a player who had been at Chelsea for a long time like this!
“When he tried to meet with me he was like, ‘Let’s try and make up, I will need you in the team, let’s squash this, blah, blah, blah!’.
“I was like, ‘Are you joking?! Are you f****** serious?!’ He knew I wanted out.
“I stood up and walked out of the room. You can’t disrespect a human being like that.”
5 Comments
Love you guy,my respect for you will never die.I know many will not have the courage to stand up to their coach like that, but after all you did for the club you can easily be regarded as a Chelsea legend and should be respected for that.
Black players are made to face this kind of ill treatment in the hands of their coaches as though they are not worth the game.Hope one day our players will stand up for what is right.
That is Oyinbo people for us. Use and dump. You don’t have a say.
If you try it, you will see their true colour.
Most especially we Africans, Oyinbo doesn’t want you to talk or claim that you know your right and they want you to be silent all the time. Only few of Oyinbo people are good people.
Whose fault? Our government/leaders/rulers.
It is not only in football this will happen but in general but the only solution to this problem is endurance and maturity. Plus, we need to fix Nigeria problem which is our Government.
Nigeria is a blessed country but we don’t have good leaders to lead our country to the promised land yet.
So painful. May God help us in this country. God bless Africa. God bless you more Mr. Mikel. God bless Nigeria!!!
The white suprecist agenda and propaganda which they inductrinated to the rest of the world centuries ago has done a lot of damage to the blackman’s psyche. We are most affected because other races have freed themselves from this mental slavery, after finding out their lies,deception and schemes. The white man is not superior to the black man in anyway, shape or form. They all have one thing in common,to steal, pillage,kill and destroy. So what type of endurance and maturity are you talking about. You should stand up to them and show them they are not superior to us.Our government and leaders may be their tools and slaves but you the individual show them you are not,that you are equall,if not superior to them. What help do you still need from God? Fight for your freedom,build a better society for yourself and your decendants, so they will not suffer what we’re suffering now–How do we make our country better? Think about this, we can be divided and still stand.
@O’billy Pam-Pam , thanks a lot for your input.
Endurance and the maturity counts a lot in abroad.
You can just do your things in a smart way and they will get the message.
Also for our government, Oyinbo enslaved us and our leaders are enslaving us till this moment.
The bad people are enjoying Nigeria resources while the good people are suffering.
You are 100% right. They are not better than us and if we can get it right in Africa, that is it. People we come back home.
Most especiall Nigeria if we get it right, other African countries we improve tremendously in a short of period but again, our Africa leaders are bad and selfish.
We can bring our continent/country back through football.
We saw what Super Eagles did during the EADSARS PROTEST.
Our youth should wake up and fight for this Nation and the continent.
Enough is enough. No good pitches in Nigeria to play football and not to talk of infrastructure.
Let me stop here because we are used to celebrate our oppressors in this Country/Africa because we don’t know our right and that is the reason why everybody want to go abroad forgetting that what they are seeing on TV is totally different to what they will encounter when they eventually arrive to that place.
Mr. Mikel have said it all.
If our government is reading this our conversation, I think they should have a rethink because they are also going to abroad and they know what is going on over there.
It is not easy to stay there. No place like home. Ire o. God bless Nigeria!!!
Thats why Conte then started pretending He was in love with Moses to counter any accusation racism was at play. Of course Moses took the opportunity and did well. But then he made the mistake of following Conte to Italy where he never became first choice at Inter and is now in Moscow.