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The captain of Nigeria's national team John Obi Mikel played a crucial match of the World Cup against Argentina four o'clock only after he was informed that his father had been abducted in his country and that his captors would kill him if the case was reported to the authorities.
"I had to get out of my head to represent my country first," he said.
The midfielder decided to hide the news to his teammates and his coach, in order to avoid instability in the team. He decided to play as if he were in Russia, after the own Mikel in a statement issued Tuesday by the company that represents him.
Michael Obi father of Mikel was rescued from his captors by the Nigerian police, after a shootout in the jungle in the south-east of in Nigeria nearly a week after the kidnapping.
This allowed the player to publicly discuss what happened.
Police reported that Michael Obi rescued with his driver, had "recovered from the trauma of kidnapping"
a tweet on his official account, Mikel reported Tuesday that his father "was recovering with the family".
This was the second time that Michael Obi was Nigeria.
Mikel reported that he had received a phone call last Tuesday in St. Petersburg. The person who spoke to him talked about the kidnapping of his father, while Nigeria was heading to the stadium to confront Lionel Messi and Albiceleste
Nigeria lost 2- 1 in this match of the World Cup. groups, because of a goal of Argentina in the last moments. The African team is thus eliminated from the World Cup
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The former Argentine footballer and former coach became viral on social networks because of his condition
Mikel played the whole game, even knowing that his father was in grave danger.
"Emotionally, I was affected, but I had to decide if I was mentally ready to play the game," said Mikel in the statement. "I was Confused, I did not know what to do, but in the end I knew that I could not disappoint 180 million Nigerians. I could not even inform the coaches or the NFF (Nigerian Football Federation), and only a group of close friends knew it. They told me that they would kill my father immediately after I reported it to the authorities or that I would have told anyone about it. "
The kidnappers demanded a ransom of $ 28,000, according to the police of the Southeast State. Nigeria where the operation was carried out to release the victim. [19659020]
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