I Am Open To Working With Nigeria’s National Team – Mikel Obi

By - LagosCityReporters 5 January 2024 Comments (0) 3 Mins Read

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Former Super Eagles captain, John Mikel Obi has revealed he is open to working with the Nigeria National team but not as a manager.

The former Chelsea midfielder disclosed this during an interview with CNN Sports on Thursday, stating that he would prefer to ‘fix things’ from the top.

“I would love to get involved with the Super Eagles, but not as a manager; I don’t want to get sacked; I don’t think I can handle that very well.

“I want to be involved with the national team as someone trying to fix the problems from the top, if it means to be a mediator between the players and the NFF to make sure things are run properly and have the right people managing what we should do together to make sure that we succeed.

“Success doesn’t happen only on the pitch, but from the top. So for me, that’s where we should start. I still maintain huge respect from the players and the fans. That’s what I would love to do in the future, but for now, let’s see what happens at AFCON.”

Speaking earlier during the interview, Mikel discussed the greatest African of all time, revealing that Drogba would go down as the greatest African player in his book.

He said, “There are lots of great African players; there’s George Weah, Samuel Eto’o, Yaya Toure, Jay Jay Okocha, and Nnwakwo Kanu; they are great players. Didier Drogba, for me, will go down as the greatest African player that has played the game.”

Mikel also spoke about the Super Eagles’ chances at the 2023 AFCON and tipped Napoli striker Victor Osimhen to win player of the tournament.

Mikel Obi retired from football in 2022 at the age of 35.

The former Nigerian international kicked off his professional career in 2004 with Norwegian outfit Lyn. He later joined Chelsea, where he enjoyed a lengthy spell at Chelsea until 2017.

In total he played 372 times for Chelsea and scored six goals, while he won the Champions League, two Premier League titles, four FA Cups, two League Cups, and the Europa League.

He left Chelsea in 2017 for Chinese outfit Tianjin TEDA before his return to England for Middlesbrough only two years later. He then moved to Turkey in 2019 where he won the Turkish Cup with Trabzonspor a year later.

Obi Mikel made one final comeback to England in 2020 for Stoke until his departure for Kuwait SC a year later.

On the international stage, Mikel represented Nigeria on 91 occasions and won the Africa Cup of Nations in 2013.