Chelsea midfielder, John Obi Mikel, evidently began his role as Team Nigeria captain by donating the sum of $30,000 (N9.4m) to the cash-strapped national U23 team.
The Dream Team VI, currently camping in Atlanta, United States of America (USA), are without any form of assistance from the Sports Ministry or Nigeria Football Federation (NFF).
Coach Samson Siasia whose pleas have constantly fallen on deaf ears, once again voiced the sorry state of his team after Sports Minister, Solomon Dalung, had publicly denied having knowledge of their trip.
“We are being owed backlog of allowances and wages in the last five months. No single kobo has been paid to the team as at today,” lamented the gaffer on Wednesday.
“The team have suffered too much. There is no encouragement to show for our patriotism to the country.”
And Mikel, who only joined the rest of the squad a couple of days ago as one of two over aged players, felt empathy and extended a helping hand to his colleagues.
“Mikel has donated $30,000 to the team. You know we have not received money since we left Nigeria,” a teammate told AfricanFootball.
Due to the sport ministry’s negligence, a kind-hearted Nigerian based in Atlanta was reported to have settled the bills of the team for the last 10 days.
A Nigerian bank also donated the sum of N30m to the Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC) to support the nation’s participation at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
The Olympic is scheduled to kick-off on August 5 in Brazil.
