Jon Obi Mikel is gradually establishing himself as a well liked pundit in the UK landscape, and he was on a few radio and TV shows over the weekend discussing the Champions League final, comparing it to his own memories of the game.
He had some funny thoughts about Didier Drogba, his teammate who scored the late equaliser in 2012 which took the game to penalties, and then scored the spot kick to win it for the Blues:
“Big ego, big game player. He scored big goals for us,” Mikel said on TalkSport with a twinkle in his eye when reminiscing about his old friend and teammate on that night in Munich.
“Scored a massive goal in the Champions League final, won it for us, and he robbed me of the man of the match award.”
A joke with a kernel of truth
If there’s one thing we’ve learned from checking out Mikel’s podcast, it’s that he’s got far more spark and personality than we ever really saw when he was a player. Perhaps it was just because he was in a dressing room full of such big characters (like the aforementioned Drogba), but he always seemed quite shy. In fact he’s full of charisma and jokes like the one above.
It’s not entirely a laugh however – just take a look back at Mikel’s highlights from that night and you’ll see he’s got a point. He was absolutely brilliant that day, as he was in a few games leading up to the final. It would have been hard to not give the award to Drogba or even Petr Cech considering their contributions, but if you’re going on the full 120 minutes play rather than the crucial moments, Mikel might actually edge them both.
