The Director-General of Pepsi Football Academy, PFA, Coach Kashimawo Laloko has spoken of incidents that suggested he was not happy with the conducts of Super Eagles captain, Mikel Obi, as regards the academy.
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The Chinese Tianjin TEDA midfielder is a PFA alumnus.
But according to the former Technical Director of the Nigeria Football Federation, Coach Laloko, Mikel abandoned his alma mater even in the academy’s hour of need.
“Mikel was brought to limelight through our Jos centre around 1995 to 2002. We gave him the breakthrough that made Nigerians to know him. He was unpolished when he came but we refined him. If not for us, maybe, he would not be where he is today but since he became a star, I have not heard that he visited the Jos centre to donate a pair of jersey to the players there. That is most unfair.
“Some former players give us money for the running of the centres but Mikel has not done such. Osaze is an example of a player who paid us because he recognised what we did for him. There was a time we wanted to use Mikel in a advertising campaign for the academy but he shunned us. His agent was asking us to pay a huge sum of money but Mr. Nelson could not believe it and that was how the deal fell through,” the coach narrated in an interview he granted Vanguard.