Former Nigeria U23 coach Samson Siasia has opened up about a controversial moment ahead of the 2008 Olympic Games, revealing that former Super Eagles skipper John Mikel Obi once offered him \$50,000 to be included in the final squad.
In an interview with Elegbete TV, Siasia explained that Mikel was not involved in the team’s qualification process and only showed interest after the job had been done.
“At the time, Mikel wasn’t a regular starter at Chelsea. I asked him to come help us in our last qualifying match against Ghana. He turned it down, saying he was too busy with club commitments,” Siasia said.
Nigeria went ahead to draw that game 0-0 and booked their ticket to Beijing without Mikel’s input.
“After we qualified, Mikel’s agent reached out to me with an offer of €50,000 to get him into the Olympic squad,” Siasia continued.
“But I wasn’t going to reward someone who didn’t contribute to our journey. I had players who gave everything during the qualifiers. Bringing in Mikel at the expense of one of them would have been wrong. I told them money couldn’t buy that spot.”
Ultimately, Mikel was not selected for the tournament, which saw Nigeria go all the way to the final before losing to Lionel Messi’s Argentina.
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