Mikel John Obi: Nigeria's Olympic Bronze 'Up There' With Champions League for Chelsea

Nigeria's football captain Mikel John Obi told Newsweek that his Olympic bronze medal ranks as highly as winning the Champions League or English Premier League with London club Chelsea.

Obi and his team-mates were Nigeria's sole medallists at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, securing a bronze medal by defeating Honduras 3-2 on Saturday in Belo Horizonte. The victory makes Nigeria the most successful African team in Olympic football history, having previously won gold in the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta and silver at the 2008 competition in Beijing.

The midfielder has won a slew of honours in his club and international career, including the Africa Cup of Nations in 2013—the continent's equivalent of the European Championships—with Nigeria and two Premier League titles, four FA Cups and one Champions League with Chelsea. But he tells Newsweek that bringing home a medal from Rio is one of the highlights of his career.

"It's really massive for me, after winning everything that I've managed to win with Chelsea," says Obi, 29, speaking from Brazil ahead of his flight back to London. "I'm really pleased, really happy and I still can't believe it."

The so-called Dream Team's achievements were all the more remarkable considering the off-the-field difficulties they had to negotiate. Nigeria's footballers only arrived in Brazil hours before their opening game against Japan after the country's football federation failed to arrange flights early enough and a private plane chartered by the Nigerian government turned out to be too small. Obi also told Newsweek that the squad boycotted training ahead of the 2-0 quarter-final victory over Denmark in a dispute about allegedly unpaid allowances.

The football bronze was the sole highlight at another difficult Olympics for the West African giant, which has the continent's biggest population and second-largest economy behind South Africa (which gained a total of 10 medals, including two golds). The competition in Rio was a marginal improvement on Nigeria's performance at the 2012 Olympics in London, where the team failed to win any medals at all. But it still failed to live up to expectations—Nigerian sports minister Solomon Dalung told Newsweek ahead of the games that the country was targeting a minimum of five medals.

Obi says that Nigerian athletes in other disciplines can take heart from the football team's display and urges the country's sports authorities—including the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF)—to prepare better for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. "The athletes can see that whatever you put your mind to, you can always achieve something. I wish we [had] won a few more medals but we didn't manage to achieve that," says Obi. "For the [NFF], I think they just have to learn how to prepare for tournaments like this and make sure next time we're ready and prepare very well."

In one of the odder turns of events in Rio, a Japanese plastic surgeon stood in to cover the costs of the Nigerian football team. After coach Samson Siasia complained that the squad and staff had not received promised allowances for their training camp, Katsuya Takasu promised to give a gift of $200,000 to the team, plus an additional $10,000 per player for a bronze medal. The Japanese benefactor made good on his word on Saturday, flying out to Brazil to watch the team's victory and presenting the cheques—one for $200,000 and the bonus bronze rewards of $190,000—to Obi and Siasia.

Takasu explained that he had been inspired by the dedication shown by the "indomitable" Nigerian team, despite administrative and financial difficulties, and was determined to reward them. "This team showed resilience and fought the hardest to achieve success, despite all their problems—some people would have given up but they didn't," Takasu told BBC Sport.

"Probably the guy felt a bit sorry for our national team, the way we were treated and he decided to help us with some finances," says Obi. The Nigeria captain says that the gift has been gratefully received by members of the squad, the majority of whom are under 23 and many of whom do not play for major clubs. "After everything they've gone through, [if] they can take something—most especially the medal—but if they can take a bit of cash home back for their families, that would be pretty amazing as well."

Nigeria's national team has struggled of late, dropping to 67 in the FIFA world rankings—their lowest position since 1999. The team failed to qualify for the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations after losing to Egypt in March and have a tough qualifying group for the 2018 World Cup in Russia, lining up against Algeria, Cameroon and Zambia.

Obi says that the West African country has been underachieving in recent times and that reaching the World Cup is the standard that Nigeria must be aiming at. "Nigeria is a massive country and a footballing country as well, so where we are now in terms of football is not where we want to be," says Obi. "Let's hope this [the bronze medal] can motivate the national team. Now we have the World Cup qualifiers coming up, we have to be ready for that. We have to make sure we prepare well and qualify for the World Cup."