Spotlighting Mikel Obi’s long and successful career
Mikel Obi was born John Michael Nchekwube Obinna in Plateau state, Nigeria. At 12 he was selected to play in the prestigious Pepsi Football academy. He later went on to play for the Nigerian club Plateau United.
One of the most unbelievable things about John Mikel Obi’s career is that his real surname is actually “Michael” and not “Mikel”. In 2003, at the FIFA U-17 World cup, there was a registration error because a member of the association put down his name as “Mikel” instead of “Michael”. The error was printed on his jersey like that and since then he got stuck with the name “Mikel”.
After the U-17 World cup, he trialed for South African club Ajax Cape Town but he ended up signing for Norwegian club Lyn 1896 FotballKlubb.
He fully burst into the scene in 2005 at the FIFA U-20 World cup–it was called the FIFA World Youth Championship at the time. He had a fantastic tournament with the Nigerian team and they narrowly lost out to Argentina in the finals. Lionel Messi was in that Argentine team. Mikel Obi won the Silver ball award at the tournament and undoubtedly became on the radar of top European clubs.
Mikel’s first major transfer to a big European club sparked a full-out controversy between Manchester United, Chelsea, and his club Lyn 1896 FotballKlubb at the time. The controversy was so hot at the time that Mikel was absent from training for Lyn and there were misguided reports that he was kidnapped. Anyway, the issue was sorted out with Chelsea Paying off Manchester United. Mikel went on to sign for Chelsea Football club.
He had a delightful career playing for Chelsea. He initially played under Manager Jose Mourinho who changed his position on the pitch but that didn’t minimize the impact he had on the team. He played under a couple of other managers at Chelsea too after Mourinho. Mikel didn’t get his first goal for Chelsea until his 185th game for the club. He won two Premier League titles for the club, 3 F.A cups, 1 League cup, 1 community shield title, the UEFA champions league, and the UEFA Europa league. He left the club in 2017 after they failed to renew his contract.
After Chelsea, he played for Chinese club Tianjin TEDA, Middlesbrough, Trabzonspor, Stoke City, and finally Kuwait SC. He also won the Turkish Cup title with Turkish side Trabzonspor.
John Mikel Obi won 89 caps with the Super Eagles of Nigeria and he scored 6 goals for the team. He was part of the team that won the 2013 African Cup Of Nations trophy in 2013 under late coach Stephen Keshi. He also captained Nigeria to the 2016 Olympics and the team won a bronze medal. He also played in 2 world cup tournaments with the Super Eagles.
#Sport is a segment that keeps you abreast of everything happening in the world of sport, shares facts, and sometimes also takes you down memory lane to relive some unforgettable sporting moments. In this edition, former Super Eagles captain John Mikel Obi retires from football.
