TheCable

MIKEL OBI

The year 2016 is one John Obi Mikel will never forget in his career.‎ It ‎was bitter-sweet in every manner. He was selected to play at the 2008 Olympics but his absence from the Silver-winning side caused him problems with Samson Siasia coach of the side who later became Super Eagles coach.

This time, Mikel was present and willing, and he was made captain of the team.

Mikel was in superb form and it showed. He scored his first Olympic goal in the 2-0 win against Denmark, which took the team to the semi-finals. After the 2–0 defeat to Germany, Nigeria went on to win the bronze medal match against Honduras.

Nigeria became the first-ever country to win all three medals at the Olympics Games with the 1996 squad winning the gold and 2008 squad winning the silver.

If the Olympic Gold was one of his biggest moments, the repercussion soon dawned on Mikel, as he started having challenges with Chelsea Coach Antonio Conte, an episode that soon became public knowledge that saw new Super Eagles Coach Genort Rohr intervene.

Interestingly, Mikel is in his last year of his five-year contract and has incredibly yet to play a single official game with the Blues and the rumours are now about which club he would next play for. Mikel had played his record 350th game under Coach Guus Hiddink before the Dutch man’s departure.