The former Super Eagles defender Taribo West said that the mafia sent him packing from the Italian giants, AC Milan.
Taribo said he had only made four appearances when he joined the Rossoneri, an AC Milan rivals in December 1999, then he was loaned to Derby County and again to the English Premier League.
Speaking with ScoreNigeria in an interview, Taribo said that the Italian mafia could not bear the fact that an African defender would play ahead of their Italian club legends – Allesandro Costacurta, Paolo Maldini and Franco Baresi.
“They would do anything in their powers to make sure I was done with AC Milan.
“They cooked a vicious story in the press that I was injured in the desperate bid to send me out of Milan.
“The doctors were bribed to say I was injured, but it was a lie. They did that because they felt it was unthinkable for an African player to take the place of those three aging defenders”, he said.
However, I had to resolve to join Derby County.
