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Tag: Mikel

  • Mikel tips  ‘fighting fit’ Arsenal  to clinch  Champions League

    Mikel tips  ‘fighting fit’ Arsenal  to clinch  Champions League

    John Obi Mikel believes Arsenal are capable of winning both the Premier League and the Champions League this season and claims Mikel Arteta has the best squad in Europe at his disposal.

    Arsenal currently sit four points clear at the top of the Premier League and already hold a seven-point advantage over reigning champions Liverpool.

    Arteta’s side have also made an impressive start to their Champions League campaign as they have beaten Athletic Bilbao, Olympiacos and Atletico Madrid without conceding a goal.

    Obi Mikel, who won two league titles during his career with Chelsea, feels Arsenal are the standout candidates to win the Premier League this season and says the options Arteta has in his squad are ‘frightening’.

    “This season I think it’s Arsenal’s to lose,” Obi Mikel said on The Obi One Podcast. “If Arsenal and Mikel Arteta don’t win the Premier League… the squad, the depth they have, is frightening.

     “They have the best squad not just in the Premier League, not just in England, in world football right now. I bet you there’s no better squad depth than Arsenal’s.

    Read Also: NFF should be disbanded if Nigeria misses 2026 World Cup, says Mikel Obi

     “Not just talking about the eleven who start, what you have on the bench who come in and win games, Arsenal, there’s no better.

    “Sometimes it’s not the starting eleven that wins you games, it’s who you bring off the bench, and we’ve seen Arsenal. Martinelli coming off the bench to win them games, Eze, Merino, Havertz is injured.

    “It’s frightening and Mikel Arteta knows that, this is Arsenal’s title to lose. Deep down they know it’s the truth, this is the season for Arsenal to win the Premier League. City are not there, Liverpool are struggling, we [Chelsea] don’t have the experience to go and win the Premier League.

    “We’re talking about the Premier League, I think they can go on to win the Champions League, this is how good Arsenal are.

     “It’s scary, I’m telling you, the squad they have, the players they have, the way they are playing, and I can see a little bit of a mental shift, I think right now they believe, there’s something there, I can feel it now, finally Arsenal are ready.”

    Arsenal have faced criticism over their playing style having scored just five of their 16 Premier League goals from open play this season.

    But Obi Mikel believes Arteta has enough attacking options to not only rely on set-pieces.

    “It doesn’t matter how you score, it doesn’t matter how you win games, it doesn’t matter how you win the title, just win,”  Obi Mikel said.

  • Mikel makes claims over  Dream Team ‘s campaign at Rio 2016

    Mikel makes claims over  Dream Team ‘s campaign at Rio 2016

    Former Super Eagles captain John Obi Mikel has offered fresh insight into the challenges the Nigerian team faced ahead of the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio, revealing how he personally stepped in to ensure the squad made it to the tournament.

    Mikel was named captain of Nigeria’s Olympic team after being included in the 35-man provisional squad. He went on to play a key role during the competition, scoring his first Olympic goal in a 2–0 quarter-final win over Denmark.

    Although Nigeria fell short of the gold medal after a 2-0 defeat to Germany in the semi-finals, the team bounced back to claim the bronze with a 3-2 victory over Honduras. That win made Nigeria the first country to win all three Olympic football medals — gold in 1996, silver in 2008, and bronze in 2016.

    Speaking on That Peter Crouch Podcast, Mikel recounted the troubling events that unfolded just before the tournament, explaining how financial delays threatened to derail the team’s travel plans.

     “A budget was signed by the government and someone sitting on top of that money, didn’t release that money and we were sitting at the hotel, about to fly to Rio.”

    According to Mikel, the uncertainty over funding left players anxious, unsure how they would reach Brazil. As team captain, he took the initiative to find a solution.

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     “Everybody was thinking how are we gonna get there? There was no money to pay for flights, there was nothing to do, the players were worried and for most of them, it was their first time going to a major tournament so I thought why not?”

    “I spoke to the coach, said how can we find a plane, we looked for a plane and I had to pay for it. We got there, I thought now I’m gonna get reimbursed my money, up till today I still haven’t received it.”

    Despite never being reimbursed, Mikel said the satisfaction of helping his young teammates achieved the feat in Rio nine years ago was more pleasant to him and could not be quantified monetarily.

     “The joy that I take out of that is that we got there and those young players were able to get an Olympic medal. I know we finished third but it’s still a massive achievement.”

     “For me to be able to see that for those young players, go back home to their families, knowing that they got a medal from the Olympics was more than the money. So for me, I left it for them.”

  • Chelsea can sign Osimhen in January, says Mikel

    Chelsea can sign Osimhen in January, says Mikel

    Former Chelsea player John Obi Mikel maintains they were ‘very, very close’ to signing Victor Osimhen from Napoli and can try again in January, despite his Galatasaray move. ‘It’s just little details.’

    It was known all summer that the Nigeria international was on the market and could leave for under his €130m release clause, but it wasn’t until the final few days that Chelsea really stepped up negotiations.

     “I could see the ambition of where they want to take this club now and also on Victor’s side, I think if we have to pick this back up again in January or next summer, we know where we are,” he said on the Obi One Podcast. “We know where we’ve stopped and it’s just the little details that need to be finalised and the deal will be done.”

    It is not quite clear whether there is a break clause in his contract at Galatasaray, or more likely a gentleman’s agreement to release him early with a penalty paid to the Turkish side.

    Mikel maintains if Chelsea had started the talks earlier, they could’ve secured the striker in the summer.

     “We were very, very close – I’ll put it that way. We were hours away from getting this deal done but it was just slight issues, slight little problems, that we just couldn’t get over the line.

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     “And then, we didn’t have much time. The one time you want the seconds and minutes and hours to slow down a bit, it just didn’t work. I think both sides really played their part in terms of getting a deal done.”

    On deadline day, the Partenopei had agreed a sale to Al-Ittihad for €80m including bonuses, only for the deal to fall apart hours later reportedly over an extra Napoli request of €5m.

    Then Chelsea jumped in, but could not agree personal terms with Osimhen, as Sky Sport Italia claim they were only prepared to offer €4m per season wages, with another €4m made up of performance-related bonuses, including Champions League qualification.

    So with the deadline passed in most European leagues, Osimhen joined Galatasaray on loan for the 2024-25 season.

    Nonetheless, Mikel is confident that he can join Chelsea as early as the January transfer window.

  • Nigeria can’t win AFCON without beating ‘big boys’, says Mikel

    Nigeria can’t win AFCON without beating ‘big boys’, says Mikel

    Former long-serving captain  of the national team, John Obi Mikel, has stated   categorically that the current Super Eagles would need more than the rhetoric of the ‘Let’s Do It Again’ campaign, adding that they must be ready to sweat and beat the  continent’s big boys to win the coveted Africa Cup of Nations yet again.

    With all her pedigree, Nigeria has won the foremost continental trophy on only three occasions following  victory at home in 1980 as well as in 1994 in Tunisia, and in 2013, when Mikel  played a pivotal role to see  the Super Eagles claim glory in South Africa.

    The coach Jose Peseiro-led Super Eagles, before their  final AFCON 2023 qualification match against the Falcons and True Parrots of Sao Tome and Principe in Uyo last month, have adopted the catch-phrase ‘Let’s Do It Again’ as their battle-cry towards winning a fourth Africa Cup of Nations title in Cote d’Ivoire early next year.

    But Mikel, the erstwhile  midfield enforcer at Chelsea who incidentally was one of  the star assistants that conducted the draws that pitched Nigeria in a tricky Group A along with hosts Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea Bissau  and Guinea, said the Super Eagles must be ready to beat the ‘big boys’ of African  football to fulfil their dreamed fourth title.

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    “We have to make sure we beat the big boys, because to win this kind of trophy (AFCON Trophy), you have to be ready to play against the big boys; Senegal, Egypt, the Ivory Coast (Cot d’Ivoire)  and Morocco,” hinted the 2012 UEFA Champions League winner with Chelsea. “We  just have to be ready for these big games because we will eventually face them at  some point during the tournament, and we must  make sure we are ready for them.”

    The delayed 34th  AFCON is expected to kick off on  January 13th  with opening match as Cote d’Ivoire kicks off against Guinea-Bissau at the Alassane Ouattara Olympic Stadium of Ebimpe in Abidjan.

    The Super Eagles will commence their campaign on January 14th against Equatorial Guinea, before battling against the hosts on January 18th at the Stade Olympique Alassane Quattara, Abidjan; with their final group game against Guinea-Bissau on January 22  at the Stade Felix Houphouet Boigny in Abidjan.

  • Mikel, Rohr talks succesful

    Super  Eagles’ Technical Adviser has told NationSport that he visited team Captain John Mikel Obi in England and the result of their deliberation concerning his return to the team a successful one.

    The Franco-German Coach is putting finishing touches to his preparations’ for the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations holding in Egypt s from June 21 and there was the need to have one-on-one meeting with his Captain who had not played for the team since the last World Cup held in Russia in 2018.

    Rohr had been diplomatic about the absence of Mikel in the team, citing various reasons why the former Chelsea star who now plays for Middleborough this season, had missed action. But the Coach and his Captain had now me and had a successful discussion concerning his return to the team for the AFCON tournament in Egypt.

    “We had a good meeting with Obi Mikel and we will do a statement in a few days”, Rohr disclosed to NationSport shortly after watching the game between Leicester City and Chelsea yesterday.

    Mikel who had a good tournament in Russia in spite of the knowledge his father was kidnapped then before he was later released, also had a good playing time with Middleborough which points to the fact that he has actually regained his full fitness and ready to fire from all cylinders in AFCON in Egypt.

  • Life in China difficult, Mikel reveals

    Mikel Obi has finally opened up on the real reasons he returned to England to sign for Championship side, Middlesbrough after spending two seasons in the Chinese Super League.

    The Super Eagles’ captain could not resist mouth-watering £140,000-a-week wages dangled at him by Tianjin Teda FC when he left Chelsea on a free transfer but after playing in the Asian country, Mikel told the Telegraph that he could not adjust to life in China because of the deplorable state of their football facilities.

    Though Mikel admitted that his relationship he had with his teammates was the only positive side to his stint in China but the reality hit him as soon as he arrived in Tianjin, a coastal city of 15 million people in the north of the country and discovered that it was not professional football as he knew it.

    “It was two years of a huge culture shock,” Mikel began in the interview, having finished speaking at Middlesbrough’s training ground to a group of refugees. “The food was a problem, the lifestyle, the style in which everything was done.

    “When you have been at a club like Chelsea in the Premier League, for 11 years, it was very hard to adapt to how things were done. It isn’t at the elite level, let’s put it that way.

    “The pitches were poor, stadiums are poor, and the medical facilities were not what I was used to. I’m not saying it’s all the Chinese clubs, some of them are quite professional, but the one I was at, it wasn’t as professional as it should have been. It became tough for me almost straight away.

    “I wouldn’t say I regretted it, I had a good time with my team-mates, but it was never easy. The standard of football, it’s not even Championship standard.

  • Boro’s promotion will be great feat – Mikel

    Nigeria international Mikel Obi believes leading Middlesbrough to gain promotion to the English Premier League (EPL) would be one of his greatest achievements in his illustrious career.

    Having tasted glory in the English domestic league, UEFA Champions League and African Cup of Nations (AFCON), Mikel told gazettelive.co.uk that he was still hungry for trophies.

    “If we manage to pull it off, it would be amazing,” he said. “It would be up there as one of my greatest achievements.”

    “I’m still hungry and want to win trophies,” he declared.

    “I’m never satisfied with what I have achieved. If I was, I would just sit at home.

    “I want to achieve something with this club and that is to get this club promoted.

    “I love challenges and I knew to come in here would be a challenge for me, and being in the second division would be a challenge for me.

    “I knew this club would be pushing for promotion and managing to do that wouldn’t be easy.”

    Boro is in fifth place and are nine points adrift but have a game in hand on the top two and are in good form.

    And Mikel is optimistic that the club has it within their grasp to regain the top flight place he believes they deserve.

    “Middlesbrough is a massive club and should be in the Premier League,” he said. “It is where they belong for me.

    “We still have a lot of games to play, and if we manage to win quite a few of them, who knows?

    “If we could get automatic promotion, fine, and if we get into the playoffs and that is how we do it, then that would be amazing as well.

    “We just have to keep pushing.”

    Mikel signed a short term deal until the end of the season and isn’t looking beyond that.

    He says he is happy on Teesside and enjoying his football and is open-minded about what happens after May.

    “I want to enjoy my football and enjoy winning games with this club, these players are an amazing group of guys,” he said.

    “Every time we win a game you get that feeling of wanting to be in the Premier League.

    “That is something I want to keep enjoying with them until the end of the season. And then we see where we are.”

    Signing the former Chelsea holding man came out of the blue in January and a lot of fans raised eyebrows.

    The Central midfield was a department Boro was already well stocked in and the Nigerian had spent 18 months in the Chinese league, a lucrative but not very competitive arena.

  • My daughters are my biggest supporters – Mikel

    Middlesbrough midfielder, Mikel Obi has said that his twin daughters – Ava and Mia are his biggest supporters.

    The Super Eagles’ captain who joined the English Championship side early this year, has been outstanding for the Tony Pulis-tutored side with his immense contribution to the team’s 1-0 away win over Blackburn Rovers wrote on his social media page yesterday that the twins are his angels.

    “My biggest supporters, my angels,” Mikel wrote on his Instagram page yesterday and the comment has received positive responses from his fans across the globe.

    Mikel displayed the photos of his twin girls in their London home, wearing the colours of Boro with their father’s name – Mikel written on the back. The twin – Ava and Mia were born in 2015 two years after Mikel got engaged to Russian businesswoman Olga Diyachenko.

    With Boro hosting QPR this weekend, Coach Pulis will be looking up to the former Chelsea midfielder to marshal the centre in his fourth league game for the team.

    Having amassed 54 points from 32 matches to occupy fifth place on the league, Boro will be aiming for another victory in their push for promotion to the English Premiership.

  • Mikel joins Middlesbrough

    John Mikel Obi returns to England is becoming imminent after the Super Eagles captain passed medical and agreed terms to join English Championship side – Middlesbrough.

    Obi who is a free agent has been at Rockliffe in advanced talks over a switch to Boro.

    According to gazettelive.co.uk, it was understood that Obi have passed medical and agreed personal terms. He visited Rockliffe for positive initial talks last week and has returned with a view to sealing the deal.

    Read also: AFCON 2019: No need to mount pressure on Mikel- Siasia

    There is some fine-tuning to do before the move can be rubber-stamped but Boro are hopeful it can be concluded quickly.

    The midfielder, 31, is a free agent after leaving Chinese side Tianjin Teda by mutual consent earlier this month.

  • Mikel announces departure from Tianjin Teda

    Chelsea legend John Obi Mikel has revealed he has cancelled his contract with Chinese Super League club Tianjin Teda, a year before the agreement between club and player was due to run out.

    The Nigerian captain has not travelled with the Tianjin Teda first-teamers to Spain for pre-season training as he is negotiating with the club to break his contract.

    In an interview with Tianjin TV Sports New Vision program, Mikel said: ”I broke the contract with the club, which means I will leave Teda. As for my next stop, I am not sure yet, maybe I will return to Europe, maybe stay in China.

    ”Anyway, I would like to wish the TEDA team good luck next season.”

    Mikel performed well for Tianjin Teda in the first half of the 2018 season but struggled with injuries in the second half after representing Nigeria at the World Cup.

    Throughout his stay in China, the central midfielder-cum defender featured in 31 Super League matches, scoring 3 goals (3 assists).