Former Chelsea and Nigeria midfielder John Mikel Obi’s departure from Turkish super club, Trabzonspor, has been widely reported.
During the week, Trabzonspor chairman Ahmet Agaoglu expressed the opinion that the Turkish football league should continue despite global calls for suspension due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Agaoglu’s reasoning for not halting the league was the potential increase in divorces across Turkey. However, Mikel Obi, a former player of Trabzonspor, has now responded to Agaoglu’s comments.
Mikel terminated his contract with Trabzonspor after criticizing the club on social media for continuing matches when other European leagues had suspended football matches. The Club chairman asked Mikel to delete his social media post, but Mikel refused, resulting in a mutual parting of ways.
When asked to respond to Agaoglu’s comments, Mikel was quoted by the Guardian UK stating, “It just shows you how the thinking there is. I just have to be honest and be brutal with what I’m saying. It just shows that they don’t really care about human life. They don’t care about what is going on in the world. All they care about is how to win the league. The reason why I signed for Trabzonspor last summer was to win the league. I gave 100% in every game. But in this situation, where the world is facing such a difficult time, I didn’t feel that football should continue.”
He further added, “He was telling me if I didn’t take the post down, I was not going to play until the end of the season. I said: ‘OK, if that’s what you guys think, then I am ready to stand by what I’ve said and take the hit for it.’”
Mikel was an unused substitute for the home game against Istanbul Basaksehir on Sunday, with the selection order having come from the club president.
“The president told me: ‘I will tell the coach not to play you.’ I said: ‘OK.’ It was still a risk in terms of passing the virus on, with a lot of accredited people there, and I saw what was going on, I was on the bench,” Mikel said. “There was no motivation, the players were all scared. There was no handshaking. It didn’t feel right. I just thought: ‘I don’t want to be part of this.’”
The Turkish FA on Thursday agreed to stop the football season.