Former Chelsea midfielder John Obi Mikel claims he was disrespected by Antonio Conte after going to the Olympics with Nigeria.
Mikel made 372 appearances in all competitions for the Blues in ten seasons but failed to play one minute under Conte after the Italian froze him out and made him train on his own for months.
The 33-year-old moved to Chinese side Tianjin in January 2017 after a falling out with Conte and now plays for Stoke City in the Championship.
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Mikel was told by Conte that he wouldn’t be picked for Chelsea if he chose to play for Nigeria at the Olympics in 2016, as it overlapped with the Blues’ pre-season calendar, but he chose to represent his country and face the consequences.
“I had been called up by my national team to play and it was a dream,” Mikel told The Athletic. “It’s a dream for anyone to go to the Olympics. Yes, as players we want to win the Champions League and the World Cup, but the Olympics is a massive tournament.
“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 matchdays again.
“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***ing serious?!’
“He knew I wanted out. I stood up and walked out of the room. You can’t disrespect a human being like that. I couldn’t wait for the window to open to get out. I was talking to the hierarchy and explaining that I would definitely have to go. They agreed, they understood.”
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