John Obi Mikel has revealed that he rejected a move to Manchester United and opted for Chelsea because the London club were prepared to sign three more Nigerian players.

Mikel was 18 at the time and playing for Norwegian club Lyn Oslo when he was filmed accepting a Man United shIrt from club representative Jim Ryan with the number 21 in 2005. The Nigerian signed for United but stated his desire to play for Chelsea a month later.

According to Man United manager Carlos Queiroz, Chelsea had kidnapped Mikel while the director of Lyn Oslo said Mikel was pushed into a Chelsea move. Chelsea finally settleD the matter with payments of £12 million to Man United and £4 million to Lyn in 2006. Mikel has finally revealed what happened at the time.

“My Dad wasn’t too pleased about what happened,” Mikel said in a chat with the Players’ Tribune. “He wanted me to go to Manchester United because he loved Alex Ferguson. Back home in Nigeria, a lot of people were saying I should go to United because of how well they work with young players, whereas Chelsea just bought superstars.

I had all these people on both sides fighting over me. Agents, managers, strangers, guys handing me papers. I had Sir Alex Ferguson calling me on the phone on one side. And I had Roman Abramovich on the other side, putting me up in London, hiding me somewhere where only a few people knew where I was. It was really confusing, and I was a kid, you know?

“After a while, someone from FIFA gave me a phone call. They said, ‘Listen, we know you’re young and you have these two clubs fighting over you. We can’t decide for you. You can only go where you want. You have to tell us.’

“I thought about it for a long time. It was the biggest decision of my life. You know what made my mind up? Chelsea had signed three other players from Nigeria along with me. They were staying with me at the house in London to keep me company. These guys … their lives depended on the decision I was making. If I went to United, they were gone. If I went to Chelsea, they were going to have a career. No matter how long it lasted, that was important to me. Just to give them a chance, you know?

“I chose Chelsea, and four lives changed that day.”

SOURCE:-https://savechelsea.net/mikel-obi-why-i-rejected-man-united-for-chelsea/

How important is this story now when his career is already coming to an end...

I remember the tussle between both huge teams back them.

Front

World Cup nkor

story story

Mario1989:
How important is this story now when his career is already coming to an end...

Which career do you even have to start with?


Nairaland career I guess

[s]

damickey:

John Obi Mikel has revealed that he rejected a move to Manchester United and opted for Chelsea because the London club were prepared to sign three more Nigerian players.

Mikel was 18 at the time and playing for Norwegian club Lyn Oslo when he was filmed accepting a Man United shIrt from club representative Jim Ryan with the number 21 in 2005. The Nigerian signed for United but stated his desire to play for Chelsea a month later.

According to Man United manager Carlos Queiroz, Chelsea had kidnapped Mikel while the director of Lyn Oslo said Mikel was pushed into a Chelsea move. Chelsea finally settleD the matter with payments of £12 million to Man United and £4 million to Lyn in 2006. Mikel has finally revealed what happened at the time.

“My Dad wasn’t too pleased about what happened,” Mikel said in a chat with the Players’ Tribune. “He wanted me to go to Manchester United because he loved Alex Ferguson. Back home in Nigeria, a lot of people were saying I should go to United because of how well they work with young players, whereas Chelsea just bought superstars.

I had all these people on both sides fighting over me. Agents, managers, strangers, guys handing me papers. I had Sir Alex Ferguson calling me on the phone on one side. And I had Roman Abramovich on the other side, putting me up in London, hiding me somewhere where only a few people knew where I was. It was really confusing, and I was a kid, you know?

“After a while, someone from FIFA gave me a phone call. They said, ‘Listen, we know you’re young and you have these two clubs fighting over you. We can’t decide for you. You can only go where you want. You have to tell us.’

“I thought about it for a long time. It was the biggest decision of my life. You know what made my mind up? Chelsea had signed three other players from Nigeria along with me. They were staying with me at the house in London to keep me company. These guys … their lives depended on the decision I was making. If I went to United, they were gone. If I went to Chelsea, they were going to have a career. No matter how long it lasted, that was important to me. Just to give them a chance, you know?

“I chose Chelsea, and four lives changed that day.”

SOURCE:-https://savechelsea.net/mikel-obi-why-i-rejected-man-united-for-chelsea/

[/s]

Oh, I see.

i smell lies, who were the four Nigerian players signed by Chelsea?

just say you followed the money to Chelsea.

and BTW, did i just read Chelsea spent all that money for mikel?

That tussle made him so popular, but I think he took the best decision. Looking at Manchester United's records with African players

Na who we go ask

Story teller

How this news take affect our loss.

don to keep me company

wow that's romantic.

say no more.

... And they ruined your career

What made you head to China ����

My brothers its time for payback....Oya! make we all mobilize for France so they can Break the hearts of Argentines once again....Nonsence


#France Please Win For Nigeria




Long live SuperEagles.

I think Mikel considers people's feelings before doing things!

Metuh:

Which career do you even have to start with?


Nairaland career I guess

Ojamilaraje
Cheee

What a story!

UnSelfish Decision Dont Know If Its True Sha

Who are the other 3 players ?

And that was the biggest mistake of your life.. Chelsea killed your career and made sure they buried it..

Had you gone to Man U, they would have turned you into a Magnificent Superstar, we all dreamt off.

May our Lives not end up badly like Mike's, definitely "money-wise" but in terms of being so irrelevant

He knows he would have had a better career if he went to United so he came up with this wacko story

Maybe you would still be battling Messi at the the highest level, who knows




I'm sure with Scholes and Giggs by your side





You would have learnt a lot.

silenze:
i smell lies, who were the four Nigerian players signed by Chelsea?

just say you followed the money to Chelsea.

and BTW, did i just read Chelsea spent all that money for mikel?

he's right, I know one of them is Emmanuel zarki. They were probably sent out on loan

John Obi Mikel claims referee told him he "didn't know" why he didn't give second penalty to Nigeria: “The referee looked at the VAR. He said it hit the hand. I asked why he didn't give the penalty, but he said he didn't know
If Argentina lost yesterday match. More than three sponsors of the world cup were going to pull out and FIFA was not ready to loose patronage because of Nigeria so this gave room for rigging.Argentina is more of economic value to FIFA than Nigeria.











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Sharp - Manchester United
Carlsberg - Liverpool
Pirelli - Inter Milan
Fly Emirates - Chelsea
Siemens - Madrid
Opel - Ac Milan
Tamoil - Juventus
Abn-Amro - Ajax
T. Mobile - Bayern

Only 90s kids will get it
If you know you know.

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