JOHN OBI MIKEL CALLS IT QUIT ON HIS FOOTBALL CAREER.
Written by AIGBOKHAEBHO OKHUELEIGBE on September 27, 2022
Former Super Eagles captain and Chelsea star Mikel John Obi announced his retirement from football at the age of 35.
The AFCON 2013 winner has brought down the curtain on an 18-year laurel-laden senior career that included 11 years in West London, a club he joined in 2006 in one of the most bizarre contractual controversies.
Mikel John Obi who began his career with local club Plateau United signed for Chelsea Football Club in 2006 from Lyn Oslo, Norway in what many believed was controversial, with Manchester United claiming that they had already acquired the services of the defensive midfielder from the Norwegian club before Chelsea bought him.
Both English clubs would later go ahead to settle the contractual issues that ensured the Midfielder would go on to enjoy an illustrious career with the Blues.
Mikel remains one of the most decorated Nigerian Footballers, winning trophies both at club level and with the National team side. With Chelsea, he won two Premier League titles, 4 FA cup, one EFL title, one Community Shield, The 2012 UEFA Champions League as well as the 2013 UEFA Europa League title.
The Plateau State-born Nigerian, who had a spell with Turkish club, Trabzonspor, won the Turkish cup in 2020.
Mikel Obi burst into the football scene at the 2005 FIFA U-20 World Cup in the Netherlands with the Nigerian U-20 side, the silver boy of the tournament lost the title to the sheer brilliance of the Lionel Messi-inspired Argentine side.
He made 91 international caps for the Super Eagles, winning the AFCON title in 2013, after previous appearances in the tournament in 2006, and 2010, and a final appearance at the 2019 edition. He was part of the Dream Eagles team that won the Bronze medal in the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics.
The Nigerian midfielder’s final club was Kuwait SC, following spells at Chinese Club Tianjin TEDA, Middlesbrough, and Stoke City.
