He was the first African to play for both Inter Milan and AC Milan, but Taribo West has revealed he failed to achieve his topmost priority in the colours of Inter Milan due to the high level of Mafiarism within the team.
Taribo joined the Nerrazuri in 1997, featuring 64 times, scoring two goals in all competitions. In an interview with ScoreNigeria on Monday, the Atlanta Olympic gold medalist said that the technical crew and players cooked vicious story about him in order to get him out of the club.
“The Mafia would do anything in their powers to make sure I was done away with at Milan,” he told Score Nigeria. “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 ageing defenders. “Liverpool came with an offer, but at the end of the day I had to settle for Derby County.”