Obi Mikel Quits Trabzonspor

[jette1]

Mikel next stop seattle MLS/ Saudi

[Bigpokey24]

Houston Dynamo will break the bank for Mikel

[jette1]

Houston Dynamo will break the bank for Mikel

seattle is the most successful MLS team this far/ Houston has yet to win even a spoon.

The Sounders won their first MLS Cup in 2016 and again in 2019, and have won the U.S. Open Cup four times and the MLS Supporters' Shield once, in 2014. Having won seven trophies, Seattle is the joint-fourth most successful MLS club, and one of only two MLS clubs (with Chicago Fire) to win at least four U.S. Open Cups.

[Bigpokey24]

Houston Dynamo will break the bank for Mikel

seattle is the most successful MLS team this far/ Houston has yet to win even a spoon.

The Sounders won their first MLS Cup in 2016 and again in 2019, and have won the U.S. Open Cup four times and the MLS Supporters' Shield once, in 2014. Having won seven trophies, Seattle is the joint-fourth most successful MLS club, and one of only two MLS clubs (with Chicago Fire) to win at least four U.S. Open Cups.

good for them, Mikel doesn't play on artificial grass

[mcal]

The Nigeria international explains: “They were really upset about the whole thing. I was told to meet with the president in his office one-on-one. He asked me to take it down (the post). I told him I wasn’t going to do that. It’s my opinion. This is how I feel. We live in a free world. I have freedom of speech. I can express my opinion.
“I wanted to win the league too but at this point in time, we have to think about what is more important: to save peoples’ lives.
“I want to help in any way that I can to defeat this virus. For us to be out there playing; I don’t think we are helping the global situation. I don’t feel it is right for us to play football.
“UEFA have postponed football. How come they are still playing in Turkey? It’s not right at all. But Trabzonspor were not having it — for me, they don’t care.
“I told them I wanted to go home. They said, ‘If you go home, you’re not coming back.’ I said, ‘OK, I’m going home.'”

Very poor response from the club, treating players like they're robots and property even though you invest in them is bad. Seems they didn't even try to justify their decision to continue playing, just saw him as a rented mule. The president was only seeing the $$$$ from winning the league.

...agree with Obi's stance, but it's the league who makes decision to play or not to play. Not individual clubs.

[Showboy]

He's done an interview.

Mikel John Obi insists he will reject any approach to play for Trabzonspor again after walking away from the Turkish Super League side after complaining about their handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Speaking exclusively to The Athletic, the former Chelsea midfielder has revealed the extraordinary events of the last few days which have seen him cancel his contract with Trabzonspor and return to London to be with his family.
While most professional sport around the world has been postponed in a bid to contain the spread of COVID-19, the Turkish Super League is still going on. Trabzonspor have not won the championship since 1984 but lead the division — albeit only ahead of Istanbul Basaksehir on goal difference — after 26 games.
Mikel wrote a post on Instagram last Friday insisting the season in Turkey “should be cancelled”, which is understood to have angered the Trabzonspor board. The player says he was ordered to attend a meeting with club president Ahmet Agaoglu, during which he claims he was instructed to take the post down. Mikel refused to delete the message.

The Nigeria international explains: “They were really upset about the whole thing. I was told to meet with the president in his office one-on-one. He asked me to take it down (the post). I told him I wasn’t going to do that. It’s my opinion. This is how I feel. We live in a free world. I have freedom of speech. I can express my opinion.
“I wanted to win the league too but at this point in time, we have to think about what is more important: to save peoples’ lives.
“I want to help in any way that I can to defeat this virus. For us to be out there playing; I don’t think we are helping the global situation. I don’t feel it is right for us to play football.
“UEFA have postponed football. How come they are still playing in Turkey? It’s not right at all. But Trabzonspor were not having it — for me, they don’t care.
“I told them I wanted to go home. They said, ‘If you go home, you’re not coming back.’ I said, ‘OK, I’m going home.'”
Mikel, 32, was an unused substitute in Sunday’s 1-1 draw against Istanbul Basaksehir and then chose to walk away from his contract, worth around £35,000 a week, which still had more than a year left to run. The former Chelsea midfielder says he had already been assured an option for another 12 months was going to be triggered, which would have taken him up to 2022.
On Wednesday, he flew back from Turkey to be reunited with his partner and young twin girls, who had stayed in the family home near Chelsea’s training ground in Surrey while Mikel played in the Turkish Super League.
He adds: “I explained to the club that I needed to see and be with my kids. They were calling me every single morning, crying on the phone, wondering why their friends were not coming over for playdates, why they can’t touch anyone on the street. I didn’t feel happy every morning lying to my kids, making up stories to explain why in order to try not to make them panic (about COVID-19).
“I knew if I came home, they’d be relaxed because they’d then know daddy was home. I told the club, ‘OK, if that’s what you’re saying, I’m ready to give up my contract. To be with my family, to help the world to do the right thing — everybody needs to stay at home at this point in time’.
“I have taken a financial hit by taking this stance. It is worth every single penny, I’m telling you. To see my kids happy and fine, to know we will survive this together; the only way we can beat this is by being at home with your family, taking care of your family, your neighbour.
“When I arrived back at London Heathrow, it was amazing. My girlfriend has been panicking all week over the possibility of the UK borders being shut and me not being able to come back home, that I’d be stuck in Turkey. Just imagine if this goes on for months? I wouldn’t be able to see my kids, to help my family? God forbid anything happened to them and I wasn’t there. I wasn’t willing to make that sacrifice.
“Before we hugged, I had to come home and shower, change my clothes and everything. In Turkey, I was not tested or anything like that. I had to make sure I did the right things before touching them.”
Mikel, who won eight major trophies at Chelsea between 2006-17, joined Trabzonspor as a free agent last summer, having spent the previous two years at Tianjin Teda and Middlesbrough respectively.
He had become a key player in the Turkish side’s title challenge but had been increasingly living as a recluse in Istanbul as the coronavirus crisis intensified. Turkey had six reported cases at the time of Mikel’s post but that figure had jumped to 47 by Thursday.
He says: “I thought, ‘The more this goes on, I won’t be safe out there’. I just kept myself locked up. I went to training and then I would go back to my flat. That is basically all I did until I came home.
“I was doing so well, playing every week. The team was winning, top of the league. We were playing well. I was enjoying my football out there. We had a chance to win the league but I gave that all up to do the right thing.”
Mikel is adamant he would refuse to rejoin Trabzonspor if the club made a bid to re-sign him.
“Go back to Trabzonspor? No chance,” he says. “Not with the way they have dealt with this situation.
“We have to look at ourselves sometimes in life and ask what is more important? Who do I want to be friends with? When I’m in trouble, who is going to look after me? And, the way they have dealt with this, I don’t see myself going back to Trabzonspor again.
“I hope (there will be offers from elsewhere). I hope I will be back out on the pitch once everything is settled and everyone is back at work, everything is back to normal. I want to be out there as soon as possible. But we have to defeat this virus first.
“I am looking forward to my next chapter. I don’t know where it’s going to be. I want to be closer to home, somewhere in England maybe. But we will see what happens. The best option is where I will go.
“In the meantime, my girls will help keep me fit! I will be in the gym too and if I can, I will do some running outside.”

https://theathletic.com/1686642/2020/03 ... ronavirus/

Mikel marry this girl now! Still referring to her as girlfriend

A man must trust a woman.... feminist , killed all the trust men used to have for women ...

Bia ne ba - hes got you so no shaking

Make I quick run bifor my critical thinking is questioned

[kalani JR]

He's done an interview.

Mikel John Obi insists he will reject any approach to play for Trabzonspor again after walking away from the Turkish Super League side after complaining about their handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Speaking exclusively to The Athletic, the former Chelsea midfielder has revealed the extraordinary events of the last few days which have seen him cancel his contract with Trabzonspor and return to London to be with his family.
While most professional sport around the world has been postponed in a bid to contain the spread of COVID-19, the Turkish Super League is still going on. Trabzonspor have not won the championship since 1984 but lead the division — albeit only ahead of Istanbul Basaksehir on goal difference — after 26 games.
Mikel wrote a post on Instagram last Friday insisting the season in Turkey “should be cancelled”, which is understood to have angered the Trabzonspor board. The player says he was ordered to attend a meeting with club president Ahmet Agaoglu, during which he claims he was instructed to take the post down. Mikel refused to delete the message.

The Nigeria international explains: “They were really upset about the whole thing. I was told to meet with the president in his office one-on-one. He asked me to take it down (the post). I told him I wasn’t going to do that. It’s my opinion. This is how I feel. We live in a free world. I have freedom of speech. I can express my opinion.
“I wanted to win the league too but at this point in time, we have to think about what is more important: to save peoples’ lives.
“I want to help in any way that I can to defeat this virus. For us to be out there playing; I don’t think we are helping the global situation. I don’t feel it is right for us to play football.
“UEFA have postponed football. How come they are still playing in Turkey? It’s not right at all. But Trabzonspor were not having it — for me, they don’t care.
“I told them I wanted to go home. They said, ‘If you go home, you’re not coming back.’ I said, ‘OK, I’m going home.'”
Mikel, 32, was an unused substitute in Sunday’s 1-1 draw against Istanbul Basaksehir and then chose to walk away from his contract, worth around £35,000 a week, which still had more than a year left to run. The former Chelsea midfielder says he had already been assured an option for another 12 months was going to be triggered, which would have taken him up to 2022.
On Wednesday, he flew back from Turkey to be reunited with his partner and young twin girls, who had stayed in the family home near Chelsea’s training ground in Surrey while Mikel played in the Turkish Super League.
He adds: “I explained to the club that I needed to see and be with my kids. They were calling me every single morning, crying on the phone, wondering why their friends were not coming over for playdates, why they can’t touch anyone on the street. I didn’t feel happy every morning lying to my kids, making up stories to explain why in order to try not to make them panic (about COVID-19).
“I knew if I came home, they’d be relaxed because they’d then know daddy was home. I told the club, ‘OK, if that’s what you’re saying, I’m ready to give up my contract. To be with my family, to help the world to do the right thing — everybody needs to stay at home at this point in time’.
“I have taken a financial hit by taking this stance. It is worth every single penny, I’m telling you. To see my kids happy and fine, to know we will survive this together; the only way we can beat this is by being at home with your family, taking care of your family, your neighbour.
“When I arrived back at London Heathrow, it was amazing. My girlfriend has been panicking all week over the possibility of the UK borders being shut and me not being able to come back home, that I’d be stuck in Turkey. Just imagine if this goes on for months? I wouldn’t be able to see my kids, to help my family? God forbid anything happened to them and I wasn’t there. I wasn’t willing to make that sacrifice.
“Before we hugged, I had to come home and shower, change my clothes and everything. In Turkey, I was not tested or anything like that. I had to make sure I did the right things before touching them.”
Mikel, who won eight major trophies at Chelsea between 2006-17, joined Trabzonspor as a free agent last summer, having spent the previous two years at Tianjin Teda and Middlesbrough respectively.
He had become a key player in the Turkish side’s title challenge but had been increasingly living as a recluse in Istanbul as the coronavirus crisis intensified. Turkey had six reported cases at the time of Mikel’s post but that figure had jumped to 47 by Thursday.
He says: “I thought, ‘The more this goes on, I won’t be safe out there’. I just kept myself locked up. I went to training and then I would go back to my flat. That is basically all I did until I came home.
“I was doing so well, playing every week. The team was winning, top of the league. We were playing well. I was enjoying my football out there. We had a chance to win the league but I gave that all up to do the right thing.”
Mikel is adamant he would refuse to rejoin Trabzonspor if the club made a bid to re-sign him.
“Go back to Trabzonspor? No chance,” he says. “Not with the way they have dealt with this situation.
“We have to look at ourselves sometimes in life and ask what is more important? Who do I want to be friends with? When I’m in trouble, who is going to look after me? And, the way they have dealt with this, I don’t see myself going back to Trabzonspor again.
“I hope (there will be offers from elsewhere). I hope I will be back out on the pitch once everything is settled and everyone is back at work, everything is back to normal. I want to be out there as soon as possible. But we have to defeat this virus first.
“I am looking forward to my next chapter. I don’t know where it’s going to be. I want to be closer to home, somewhere in England maybe. But we will see what happens. The best option is where I will go.
“In the meantime, my girls will help keep me fit! I will be in the gym too and if I can, I will do some running outside.”

https://theathletic.com/1686642/2020/03 ... ronavirus/

Mikel marry this girl now! Still referring to her as girlfriend

He's a modern man and understands that marriage is simply a tool of the patriarchy and is thus archaic and has serve no real benefit in society.

[TonyTheTigerKiller]

Rawlins you are are wrong person to post this

Don’t mind that midget. He gossips more than a pregnant market woman


Cheers.

[lacidi]

Turkey has suspended their league. Isn't it funny that they had to finally do exactly what Mikel was complaining about?

[maceo4]

Turkey has suspended their league. Isn't it funny that they had to finally do exactly what Mikel was complaining about?

Na real wa o...

[Bigpokey24]

Mikel dey push weigh ooo, bobo has ensured the Turkish government stopped all games

[jette1]

SHOULD MIKEL HAVE HANDLED THINGS BETTER

I often dont understand when players talk about - I miss my family - It was same thing Mikel said when he broke his contract in china.
Im sure he was making more in china but even now at 30,000 a week he could fly your entire family in a private jet to see you every day if he so desires.
At this point I'm pretty sure mikel feels comfortable with his savings so can afford to do anything but at the end of the day this is no way to handle professional relationships.

[highbury]

I often dont understand when players talk about - I miss my family - It was same thing Mikel said when he broke his contract in china.
Im sure he was making more in china but even now at 30,000 a week he could fly your entire family in a private jet to see you every day if he so desires.
At this point I'm pretty sure mikel feels comfortable with his savings so can afford to do anything but at the end of the day this is no way to handle professional relationships.

Very true. At least, one should try and leave your employers on a good term. I am not saying he didn't try. Probably he needs to be near Chelsea. Remember, he was apparently offered a coaching job by Roman Abrahamovic

[kalani JR]

I often dont understand when players talk about - I miss my family - It was same thing Mikel said when he broke his contract in china.
Im sure he was making more in china but even now at 30,000 a week he could fly your entire family in a private jet to see you every day if he so desires.
At this point I'm pretty sure mikel feels comfortable with his savings so can afford to do anything but at the end of the day this is no way to handle professional relationships.

He was doing it for his safety which the team wasn't concerned about, can't blame him at all.

As far has displacing his family, you have to consider that maybe his partner isn't interested in being displaced especially to a country that is most likely not going to be a long term destination. Also he has another child with someone he isn't presently in a relationship with don't think displacing that child would be possible either.

[1naija]

I often dont understand when players talk about - I miss my family - It was same thing Mikel said when he broke his contract in china.
Im sure he was making more in china but even now at 30,000 a week he could fly your entire family in a private jet to see you every day if he so desires.
At this point I'm pretty sure mikel feels comfortable with his savings so can afford to do anything but at the end of the day this is no way to handle professional relationships.

You are looking at it from a broke azz perspective. If after over 15 years of top level professional career he cant take a position, when can he? Mikel can do whatever he likes with his career. He has earned it.

[Edu]

Houston Dynamo will break the bank for Mikel

Fair enough bro, he's your guy. but I'm sure you know the only MLS club befitting of the Naija legend is ATL united.

[jette1]

I often dont understand when players talk about - I miss my family - It was same thing Mikel said when he broke his contract in china.
Im sure he was making more in china but even now at 30,000 a week he could fly your entire family in a private jet to see you every day if he so desires.
At this point I'm pretty sure mikel feels comfortable with his savings so can afford to do anything but at the end of the day this is no way to handle professional relationships.

You are looking at it from a broke azz perspective. If after over 15 years of top level professional career he cant take a position, when can he? Mikel can do whatever he likes with his career. He has earned it.

Your deprivation of capacity for critical thinking is understood; it’s not exactly random that you are not bill gate nor Jeff bezos of the world. Professional relation is the subject something your type knows nothing about. Stupid angel*
Take an irrational position because you are rich isn’t exactly honorable. What about staff that work his stadium on hourly wages whom are even more susceptible to the pandemic and the fans who buy the tickets that pay his salary. football is a family sports - predicated on bond and loyalty that exist between owners, fans and players. Twice now he has broken contracts just because he has a fat bank account. Ronaldo has a fatter account and not once has he failed to honor a contract. The fact that mikel is my boy doesn’t rob me of ability to call it like it is

[Cmoke]

We never support our own .
Our boy stood for the principle that life is more important than football, yet we yab him.
The man gave up plenty money and took a stand, yet we yab him.
When Labron James flatly told the NBA that he will never play in an empty arena, did these same people accuse him of being unprofessional.

[Bigpokey24]

We never support our own .
Our boy stood for the principle that life is more important than football, yet we yab him.
The man gave up plenty money and took a stand, yet we yab him.
When Labron James flatly told the NBA that he will never play in an empty arena, did these same people accuse him of being unprofessional.

Too many educated losers on this forum...why bother...tell those jokers to go and have lunch with conovirus and come back and fill us in...smh..Kobe died 2 months ago , conovirus is killing folks left and right, but some human waste on CE and shouting professionalism because of football...smh...the rest of the world have canceled everything but CE loud faceless losers are here approving Coro corio

I think we should start canceling some people on CE

[Bigpokey24]

Houston Dynamo will break the bank for Mikel

Fair enough bro, he's your guy. but I'm sure you know the only MLS club befitting of the Naija legend is ATL united.

Mikel plays on grass..ATL using astro

[felarey]

I often dont understand when players talk about - I miss my family - It was same thing Mikel said when he broke his contract in china.
Im sure he was making more in china but even now at 30,000 a week he could fly your entire family in a private jet to see you every day if he so desires.
At this point I'm pretty sure mikel feels comfortable with his savings so can afford to do anything but at the end of the day this is no way to handle professional relationships.

You don't know what his options are. From the looks of it, the failure was on the part of management. How did an employee bringing a concern about something safety related lead to if you live you can't come back? Here were told not only do you have the right to refuse unsafe work, you also have the right to stop work. First they told him to take down his tweet without addressing his concern. You could say cooler heads should have prevailed but it seemed to his bosses, he was just an athlete paid to play football. People don't leave jobs, they leave bosses. Mikel took a stand that was meaningful, we all don't know what his options are. All of us have said no to an opportunity or left a job someone else will die for.

[Scipio Africanus]

I often dont understand when players talk about - I miss my family - It was same thing Mikel said when he broke his contract in china.
Im sure he was making more in china but even now at 30,000 a week he could fly your entire family in a private jet to see you every day if he so desires.
At this point I'm pretty sure mikel feels comfortable with his savings so can afford to do anything but at the end of the day this is no way to handle professional relationships.

Fly his family into Europe and risk getting them infected with the coronavirus? When personal safety is concerned, professionalism be damned. Mikel acted like a big boy, with foresight and decisiveness.

[truetalk]

I often dont understand when players talk about - I miss my family - It was same thing Mikel said when he broke his contract in china.
Im sure he was making more in china but even now at 30,000 a week he could fly your entire family in a private jet to see you every day if he so desires.
At this point I'm pretty sure mikel feels comfortable with his savings so can afford to do anything but at the end of the day this is no way to handle professional relationships.

Very true. At least, one should try and leave your employers on a good term. I am not saying he didn't try. Probably he needs to be near Chelsea. Remember, he was apparently offered a coaching job by Roman Abrahamovic

I was on Mikel's case for the first 10 years of his National team Career, telling him to Man up, stand up and be counted. It seemed something switched in 2016, when he suddenly realized that all the kids in the National team now look up to him.

He was massive off the field during the 2016 Olympics saga, Massive the 2018 WC Qualifiers; and the leadership of the latter years massively covered up for the underperformance of the earlier years.

It seems this leadership has carried on to other areas, and his stance in Turkey is huge, and I dare say, heroic.

Yes , his club is looking to upset the traditional powers this season, but given all that is going on in the world, at the very least the league should have temporarily suspended the league to observe the situation.

They were still talking tough a few days ago, but Mikel's action seems to have forced their hand.

I commend John Michael Obi, a leader who stood up to be counted at a time when true leadership was required to checkmate (or at least call out) irresponsible authority.