Olympic gold was my target but bronze still amazing – Mikel

Super Eagles captain John Obi Mikel has expressed joy winning the Rio 2016 soccer bronze with the Nigeria U-23 team, to the extent that he had a good sleep with the medal by his side. Mikel who was writing his Olympic diary on London Evening Standard stated that winning the bronze in Rio meant a lot to him. It was also Nigeria’s only reward at the Games.

 “When I woke up in my hotel room on Sunday morning, I opened my eyes to see my Olympic bronze medal lying there beside me. “It just hammered Captain Mikel home to me what I had achieved with the rest of my Nigeria team-mates the day before.” Mikel who was also Team Nigeria captain disclosed that Honduras whom they beat 3-2 gave them a fright in the final moments of that game, but he was thankful that the team was able to weather the storm. “We conceded two late goals and all of a sudden it looked like everything was going downhill. They made us sweat a bit and we were relieved to come out victorious. “I was obviously very clear before travelling to Brazil that my target was the gold medal. But to get the bronze is still an amazing achievement. “It was great to have something to show for it and we all thanked each other. “I went to sleep last night with my medal beside me; I couldn’t and didn’t want to let it out of my sight.” Meanwhile Mikel returned to Chelsea to loads of high five by his team-mates and has been granted a three games leave by manager Antonio Conte.