I Called It Quits With, Five Years Ago -John Obi Mikel

Former Super Eagles midfielder, John Obi Mikel, has recalled a practice he called quits with five years ago, but which was threatening to suffocate him.

Obi who was reflecting generally on Vibe with FIVE podcast, over the challenges most Europe-based African players said when a footballer makes money, family members immediately assume ownership and entitlement.

 “When we come from Africa, and this is something that I don’t think we speak a lot about. When you make money, it’s not your money. You have all these relatives, cousins…whatever you call it. And your sisters, they get married to some guy who just wants to get married into the John Obi Mikel’s family because then “my life is sorted”.

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“You send money to your sister, the money goes to him, and he does whatever he does with it. This is something nobody knows about.”

“So you get your salary, you say okay, now I’m going to put this aside for this person, put this aside for that person, put this for mum and dad. Before you know it, where is it? You get nothing.”

“And they keep having so many kids and so many kids and you look at it…Okay, you are having this much kids who is going to look after them? It’s you. They look out to you for you to look after the kids, husband, and the husband’s family. And it becomes really and absolutely crazy. For them, you owe them that.”

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John Obi Mikel  who rose from age group football to breaking through to the national team and internationally, footballer success sees extended family members showing up and expecting to be taken care of.

 “So sometimes you have to be strong and say you know what guys enough is enough. I don’t care. For me that was five years ago, I said F it, no more. Because I’ve been doing this since I started playing football.”