John Obi Mikel is currently in England where he just underwent a surgery to repair the abdominal strain picked at his Chinese club Tianjin Teda.
The 30-year-old has missed three games for the Tianjin Tigers since suffering the strain in the team’s 2-0 win against Chongqing Lifan, where he got his first league goal.
He has now gone through the surgery and announced it was successful.
The footballer’s twin girls clocked one today and to mark their special day, he took them out where he asked them to pick toys for themselves.
Super Eagles Captain and Chelsea Midfielder, John Mikel bi has revealed he paid money to save dream team at the Rio Olympics in a new interview with Goal.com. This comes after Sports Minister, Solomon Dalung debunked rumours of any payment by the player.
"I think if we talk about the money that I put into the team I think it was more than [£30,000]," Mikel told Goal. "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.
"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," he said.
Well this is according to Vanguard and it had better NOT be TRUE. WTH! Lol...
Super Eagles captain John Obi Mikel will according to team’s sources, donate part of his share of the $390,000 awarded to the bronze winning Nigeria U-23 team at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
Katsuya Takasu, a Japanese surgeon made good his promise to reward the team for their bravery in Rio after they beat Honduras 3-2 for the bronze medal.
The Nigeria Football Federation and the Sports Ministry made their observations known by insisting that the money must be from a credible source, but according to feelers from the camp of the Olympics Eagles, the NFF were only seeking for means of getting their hands on the money.
However, Takasu issued two Citibank cheques $200,000 in the name of coach Samson Siasia and $190,000 in the name of Mikel. One of the team’s officials disclosed to Africafootball.com that the team vowed not to hand over the money to the NFF.
“Mikel has insisted all of us will get our share of the money. That we should not mind what the people in the NFF are saying. “He will make available this cash when he comes for next month’s AFCON qualifier against Tanzania in Uyo.”
A team meeting has already resolved that both players and officials will receive equal amount of the cash with Mikel himself agreeing to give part of his own share for the chief coach (Siasia) to get more than the rest of the squad.
It was further gathered that the sharing formula agreed was a flat rate for the 22 players (18 accredited players and four alternate players) and 10 officials.
The Japanese mulit-millionaire who promised coach Samson Siasia and his boys a huge amount of money if they win Gold, Silver or Bronze in the football event at Rio has fulfilled his promise.
He presented a $190k cheque to Mikel Obi and $200k cheque to Samson Siasia, a total of $390k. So nice of him!
Japanese plastic surgeon and billionaire Katsuya Takasu is a big fan of Nigerian players, he had earlier announced his desire to give a bonus of $30,000 to each Nigerian player should they win gold at the Rio 2016 men’s Olympic football tournament in Brazil. The billionaire also promised the team $20,000 for silver and $10,000 for bronze after hearing about their financial woes.
Mr Takasu is now on his way to Rio to watch Nigeria battle Honduras for the bronze medal, and give his donations to coach Siasia and Mikel Obi.
Nigeria U-23 skipper, Mikel Obi, has admitted that his team mates didn’t play well in Wednesday’s Olympics football semi final clash against Germany in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
With the Nigerians missing the services of two key players in the shape of Oghenekaro Etebo and Azubuike Okechukwu, the Dream Team struggled against the Europeans, first conceding early in the first half, before Nils Petersen grabbed a second goal with one minute remaining.
“I wanted to win the gold medal, but the fact is that we did not play well today (Wednesday). The Germans played well,” allnigeriasoccer.com quoted the Chelsea midfielder as saying at the press conference.
“We are professionals, we can now claim third place and this is what we get. We want to give a medal to Nigeria. ”
As Nigerians await the semi- finals, the Dream Team have vowed not to lose their game.
Chelsea star player, John Obi Mike, captain of the team says he does not want to return to Chelsea, his club, without an Olympic Games gold medal.
He vowed to delay his return to his English Premier League side after helping Nigeria to reach men’s football semi-final against Germany in Sao Paulo on Wednesday. He added that he was determined to have the Games gold to declare in his luggage.
''I hope to go back to Chelsea as the Olympic champion. That is my aim. I came out here to do my best to help the team with the gold medal. That has always been my objective. It’s my aim and the players all want the same. When you have a group of players all wanting to achieve the same thing, hopefully it will go well at the end'', he said.
