“He was not normal” – Jose Mourinho on John Obi Mikel during his reign at Chelsea

Former Chelsea manager, Jose Mourinho reminisced about his first knowledge of his Nigeria international John Mikel Obi.

The Portuguese manager was a guest on the latest episode of the ‘Obi One podcast’ owned and anchored by Mikel himself.

Mikel played a decade at Chelsea and won most of his titles in the blue shirt having the privilege to play under the ‘Special One’ as he is popularly called during his stint at Stanford Bridge.

The 2005 FIFA U-20 World Cup in the Netherlands announced Mikel to the footballing world but not to Mourinho as he insisted on not knowing him during the time.

“The first time I saw him was quite fun,” Mourinho said on TheObiOnePodcast show.

“He was even training at Chelsea and one day I was asking for a young player to come because I needed a young player to make my training work well, they spoke with me about some Nigerian guy that was living in Norway.

“The first question I asked was, ‘he’s 17, is he strong enough physically?’ they told me yes he is, so let him come. I was expecting some normal player, I saw immediately that he was not normal.

“Of course, Sir Alex also knew that he was not normal and then there was a fight that was not normal and then everything ended in the best way for Chelsea and the best way for him.

“He stayed at Chelsea for more than 10 years, he won everything, he won his money and he could play in Nigeria number 10.”