Mikel Obi Avoided Me In London—Oliseh

Super Eagles head coach, Sunday Oliseh, has claimed Chelsea midfielder, Mikel Obi, failed to see him while he (Oliseh) was in London early August.

The former Eagles captain disclosed that he travelled to England to meet with Nigerian players, but Mikel snubbed him after calling and sending a text message to his phone number.

According to Oliseh, this was why he refused to include the Chelsea player in the list of 18 foreign based players for the Tanzania match next month in Dar Es Salaam for the 2017 AFCON qualifiers.

He narrated that, “I met with the players when I went to England on Thursday, the day Chelsea was coming back from a tour before they played Arsenal in the Community Shield.

“I put a call through to John Obi Mikel. I called him four times, the phone kept ringing. I sent him a text message, I got no response. I called [Victor] Moses, the phone rang three times.

“And I spoke with [Moses], I told him to concentrate on his game and after the game he came to my hotel room we spoke and I made him understand that my priority is building a new team and everybody is starting from zero and I needed to see players playing.

“From there I [made] a trip to Liverpool there is no secret anymore, you all know about it [meeting with Jordan Ibe] everybody knows. I spoke with other players and their parents and I never got a call back from Obi Mikel until I traveled back home. But just yesterday I saw a missed call on my phone so at the moment I don’t know what the situation is now.

“For me everybody is the same and every player we call answers. To us it’s not up to me but I want to clear one thing if anybody wants to play for the Super Eagles we will all be treated the same way.

“I even told the players playing at home that home based player for me doesn’t exist, if you are a better player in Nigeria we will play you. The thing is that I have not spoken to him and I made efforts but no response, so I don’t know what to do. You people should tell me what to do, I don’t know”