|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
A CHELSEA Premier League and Champions League champion made light of the fact that he has been “chilling and drinking beer” for the past 12 months since hanging up his boots.
After a brief tenure with Kuwait Sporting Club that saw him mutually terminate his contract after just four months and only two matches, John Obi Mikel, 36, retired in September 2022.
The Nigerian spent 11 years at Stamford Bridge, where he helped Chelsea win four FA Cups, two League Cups, the Europa League, the 2012 Champions League, and two Premier League championships.
After stints with Middlesbrough and Stoke City and trips in China and Turkey, he left west London in 2017.
The midfielder, who played nearly 400 games for the Blues, was in a good mood after leading a Chelsea Legends XI to a 4-0 victory over Bayern Munich in a game to honor legendary player-manager Gianluca Vialli.
When SunSport enquired about how Mikel had been spending his retirement, he was in an equally upbeat frame of mind after joking that Chelsea’s owner Todd Boehly and manager Mauricio Pochettino needed to “bring back” his generation to help Chelsea develop.
He chuckled, “Me? merely relaxing and consuming beer!”
Super-fit Michael Essien, John Terry, Gary Cahill, and Tiago Mendes all scored goals for the Blues, making Mikel one of the stars of the Stamford Bridge show.
At the game, which attracted a sizable audience and some of Chelsea’s top stars, Ramires, another old teammate, was also photographed sporting a new appearance.
Gianfranco Zola, a veteran of Chelsea who only played seven minutes but brought the crowd to its feet with a lovely scooped pass, paid respect to Vialli, his dear friend and former teammate, in a post-game interview.
We were all quite emotional tonight, according to Zola, 57, because he and his family through a great deal of anguish and pain.
The way he handled the entire process, even the agony, with such grace is what most impressed me. He had charisma and strength.
The Italian, who is regarded as one of Chelsea’s all-time greatest players, also offered his opinion on the current group, with Poch’s team set to play at Bournemouth on Sunday.
“Chelsea had a long and difficult season last year, and there are still issues this season,” he continued.
“Once more, I have complete faith in the coach, but he will need to assemble a team because they are a very young squad. He is fully equipped to carry that through.
It’s difficult to finish in the top four. It will be difficult in today’s England with all the teams around them, but I believe the key will be to swiftly form a squad.
They are capable, but it’s challenging without [togetherness]. They must move quickly because there are many new players.
