John Obi Mikel: “My dad got kidnapped while I was playing for Nigeria at the 2018 World Cup in Russia.”
“We were about to play against Argentina. Two hours before the game I got a phone call from my brother saying my dad got kidnapped.”
“The first time he was kidnapped was shocking, but the second time was even more shocking because I was about to go into one of the biggest games of my life.”
“I couldn’t leave the room. I couldn’t tell anybody. I was alone in the room for about 30 minutes, thinking what am I going to do?"
“But we’re about to go into the biggest game of our lives. We’re about to play against Lionel Messi and Argentina.”
“Chelsea were very supportive. I remember Roman Abramovich saying ‘do you want me to send people over? Because I know if I send people over, I can get your dad out’ — I was like, how are you going to do this?”
“He said don’t worry about that. Just let me know if you want that option, I can do it.”
(@talkSPORT)
I saw a show with a bit on Abramovich. It said in the 80s Russia had the aluminium wars, where owners of aluminum smelters were murdering each other. He was the only person who survived. Take from that what you will.
Not the only one, but he did handle it smartly- he merged his assets with the eventual ‘winner’, Oleg Deripaska.
Something he seemed to do unusually well in Russia was co-operate with other key players, rather than end up in conflict. It was a similar story with his steel business too.
Apparently he was personally very amicable by nature - a rarity amongst the oligarchs - but he also had political links to the Yeltsin clan who had played a big role in establishing Putin and so he had a smooth continuity of patronage.
He has genuine warmth for a Russian
He was 20 in the 1980s
For the whole decade?
Abramovich had zero involvement with oligarchs in the 1980s.
That’s interesting can you share the link of the video.
He actually started as a security provider for them, which put him in the inner circle of a bunch of oligarchs, then at some point he realized that he could just take over the companies himself and they wouldn’t be able to stop him lol