OMM Newsroom
Sabah striker Coy-Lens Mikels has spoken about the financial difficulties he faced several years ago and his thoughts of ending his football career. The 32-year-old said on the ntv-Sport podcast that he wanted to become a firefighter at the time.
“I couldn’t ask my family for three or four thousand euros to cover my expenses. Becoming a firefighter appealed to me. I wanted to make people happy and help them,” Mikels said.
After playing for the youth teams of Borussia Monchengladbach and Schalke in Germany, Mikels went on to play for Alemannia, Wacker Nordhausen and Carl Zeiss Jena. Injuries and Wacker Nordhausen’s insolvency put his career at risk. Mikels described his move to Dutch club MVV Maastricht as the best decision of his career.
Two years after joining Sabah, the forward moved to Saudi Arabian club Al-Faisaly, a decision he said was financially motivated: “I went there only for the money.” After one season, Mikels returned to Azerbaijan, won the national championship with Sabah, finished as the Premier League’s top scorer and secured a place in the Champions League.
The Rwanda international scored against Czech side Slavia Prague in the Champions League and was named player of the match. “Sometimes I have to pinch myself to believe all this really happened,” he said. Mikels recalled his achievements, saying: “I played in the Champions League, won the league and the cup, and became the top scorer.”
One of the forward’s ambitions is to play again at Borussia Monchengladbach’s Borussia-Park, where he once represented the club. Sabah will host Borussia Dortmund on October 21 in the league phase of the Champions League.
