John Obi Mike is one of the better-known members of the current Super Eagles side heading to the World Cup. born on April 22, 1987, Mikel has risen through the ranks of Nigeria’s national teams after representing his country at age grade levels before making his debut for the senior side in 2006.
Past World Cup performance
Despite making his national team debut quite early, Mikel had to wait eight years before getting the chance to lace his boots at the World Cup. The Super Eagles did not qualify for the World cup in Germany in 2006 and the Chelsea was ruled out of the 2010 tournament in South Africa after he struggled to recover on time from a knee injury.
After playing a significant role in the Super Eagles Nations Cup win in 2013, many Nigerians looked up Mikel to provide leadership and direction to the coach Stephen Keshi tutored side at the World Cup in 2014 in Brazil. However, the Champions League-winning midfielder seem out of his element at the tournament as he struggled to find his best form much to the disappointment of many of his and the team’s supporters.
Influence during qualification for Russia 2018
Like a fine wine that gets better with age, maturity and fatherhood seems to have had a positive impact on Mikel’s game and it was obvious in the way he marshaled the team through the qualifying stages for the 2018 World Cup. The 31-year-old midfielder played the role of a senior figure, marshaling and directing the affairs of the team on the pitch like a skilled music conductor while playing the role of a big brother off the pitch to a relatively young and inexperienced side.
Despite being grouped along side Cameroon, Algeria and Zambia, Mikel had no doubt the Eagles would whether the storm and pick the sole ticket in the group for Russia. Perhaps one the major motivating factors propelling Mikel is the fact that the World Cup will be hosted by Russia, the country of his long-term partner and Mother of his twin daughters, Olga Diyachenko.
Club Performance
Mikel left Chelsea for Chinese Super League side, Tianjin TEDA in 2017. Such as was the influence that the Nigerian was quickly made the captain of the side upon his arrival. The former Lyn Oslo of Norway midfielder has made 13 appearances for TEDA, with one goal and two assists to his name with and an average rating of 7.17 per game, and bagging four yellow cards in the process
How influential will he be at the World Cup
It is a generally known fact that the Super Eagles midfield, as it is currently constituted struggles to function without Mikel in the team, however, if he is not properly deployed in a role that will best maximize his abilities, the team will struggle all the same.
In his early years as a teenage protégé, Mikel marveled as an unorthodox attacking midfielder, but after making the move to Chelsea, then manager, Jose Mourinho decided to tame the creative knack in the player and convert him to a combative midfielder. Mikel still has the capacity to spot a pass and several Nigerian coaches have sought to play in a more advanced role with varying degrees of success.
Mikel best performances for Nigeria are often when he features in a more conservative role in midfield, indeed, he thrives when he is allowed to play the role of a conductor in the middle of the park with someone doing the dirty job behind him (Ndidi) and a runner or a schemer ahead of him (Etebo, Onazi, and Iwobi). John Obi Mikel is an immense talent and getting the best out of him at the World Cup will be key to Nigeria’s success in Russia.