Owngoalnigeria.com understand that captain of the Super Eagles ofNigeria John Obi Mikel has been handed a new role by coach of Chelsea Antonio Conte.

The Super Eagles captain, who is presently Chelsea second longest serving player in the squad has been juggling with two different roles. Mikel plays as a defensive midfielder for Chelsea but plays in a more advanced role for Nigeria.

We gathered Conte has decided tohand him same role as he plays in the Nigeria national team as part of the sweetener, he wants to use in luring the 29 year old to sign a new deal at Stamford Bridge.

Conte signed N’Golo Kante for the role Mikel has been alternating with Nemanja Matic, raising doubts about the chances of the Nigerian getting to play games for the team this season, but we gathered that talks were held during the week, where Mikel was promised a role same as the one he plays for the Nigeria national team.

” Mikel and Conte had a chat about his role in the team, although he has been assured he will be played in the role that suits him the more by the manager. He is also ready to fill in anywhere he is needed for the team”, a source close to the player told Owngoalnigeria.com.

For years, Mikel has endured a love-hate relationship with Nigerian(and Chelsea) football fans. When he missed Nigeria’s matches, he was criticised for showing a lack of commitment; but when he marshalled the midfield as Nigeria won the 2013 AFCON, he was an instant hero.

When he sat on the bench at Chelsea, he was derided — and his detractors never remember that he has managed to play for all the managers that have come in since he joined 10 years ago. And when he played, the fault was that he never attacked — that he hardly scored. Since Jose Mourinho converted him to a defensive midfielder and other Super Eagles coaches followed suit, Mikel has been a shadow of himself.

But the Mikel we saw in Brazil was the Mikel of old — the Mikel who dazzled at the Holland 2005 World Youth Championship, completing series of skillful, clear-cut dribbles to create space for his teammates and make the striker’s job easy. Mikel won the Silver Ball at that tournament, bettered only by Lionel Messi, possibly the greatest ever human (or spirit) to play the game.

At Rio, Mikel was Nigeria’s most important player. Anyone who watched all of Nigeria’s matches will agree that we may not have made it out of the group stage without Mikel, and there was certainly no way we would have reached the semis without him.

He had a hand in more than half of The Dream Team’s goals at the tournament. In the only significant match lost by the team — the other was a dead robber — Mikel fashioned out the best chance of the game, slaloming past a maze of German defenders before unleashing an uncharacteristic shot. Were it not for some last-ditch defending by the Germans, he would have scored from that move and the Dream Team may well have advanced to the final.

Mikel’s statistics in Nigeria’s most important match of the tournament — the bronze medal duel with Honduras — says it all. Nigeria scored three goals; Mikel assisted all of them! Antonio Conte must surely be wondering by now where best to deploy Mikel, and his rumoured suitors, such as Inter Milan and Galatasaray must now be surer what asset awaits them should they concretise their interest.

robosky02:


if that is done....


the beast in him will be unleashed....

khattab02:
That could be very very Nice! Thats the Mikel Nigerians want. He has flair and skill and could open up space for attackers.






Conte please give him chance in his new role!!!

robosky02:


if that is done....


the beast in him will be unleashed....

blueto:
Okay, sing for joy then

Icon79:


I hope you guys are not giving any credence to the crap this blogger is posting? When did they speak with Conte to know that he plans to give a new role to Mikel? Please ignore Nigeria journos and their tendency to fabricate craps out of their a$$es without any shred of evidence to support their claims.