Ex-Super Eagles captain, John Obi Mikel has come out to hail Michael Essien for supporting him at Chelsea. He recently revealed that the Ghanaian midfielder actually encouraged him to dominate the Blues’ midfield.
According to him, it was such an honor to share a dressing room with Essien and the other players he watched on television back in Africa.
Mikel added that playing alongside Diarra, Drogba, Lampard, Essien and Terry was definitely a dream come true for him and his family.
His words, “Suddenly, I was sharing a dressing room with all these players I had watched on television back in Africa,”
“I was sitting next to Lassana Diarra. I’d be there thinking, ‘Oh my God, it’s Didier Drogba. It’s Frank Lampard. It’s John Terry’.”
“Michael Essien (who joined from Lyon in the summer of 2005) really helped me. Michael always told me I was a good player and just reminded me to bring the ball down, control and pass. If you need to dribble, dribble. If you don’t need to, just pass. You are strong. You are fast, too. If you can, just push the ball past and run, run, run because they cannot catch you.”
‘”He was the guy who really helped me and made me have a lot of confidence.”
“They were speaking to me every day saying, ‘Sign for United, sign for United’, and there was the contract in front of me.”
“But Chelsea made it clear they weren’t going to give up. They wanted me back.”
“I had been sent by Chelsea to play there because I was not 18. I was from Africa and needed to play a certain amount of games (to get a permit).”
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