Former defender Taribo West has told Score Nigeria that Italian mobsters are to blame for the failure of his 2000 move to AC Milan.
Former Nigeria defender Taribo West has claimed that the mafia put paid to his hopes of being a success at Serie A giants AC Milan.
West, 45, joined Milan from cross-town rivals Inter in early 2000, but after making just four appearances was loaned out to Premier League Derby County, and never played for the Rossoneri again.
Mafia did "anything in their powers" to get West out
And in an interview published in the Nigerian media on Sunday, he explained that Italian mobsters could not accept a player from Africa coming into the Milan team at the expense of defenders such as Paolo Maldini and Alessandro Costacurta, both Italian club legends.
"The mafia would do anything in their powers to make sure I was done away with at Milan," West told the media outlet 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 a African player to take the place of those [...] ageing defenders.
"Liverpool came with an offer, but at the end of the day, I had to settle for Derby County."
West, whose career also saw him play for clubs including Auxerre, Partizan Belgrade and Plymouth Argyle, won 42 caps for Nigeria between 1994 and 2005, and retired in 2008.