Turkish side have decided to approach London club; Chelsea for the services of their star midfielder and Nigerian international John Mikel Obi.
Reports have it that Galatasaray declared their interest in Mikel obi as their representative; Bülent Tulun travelled to London for the talks in a bid to sign the midfielder, a deal that involve Mohammed who is a Nigeria FIFA Agent and another FIFA agent Hasan Egilmez.
Mikel joined Chelsea from FK Lyn for €26 million in 2006. The 26-year-old defensive midfielder has made 277 appearances for Chelsea, won the Premier League title, four FA Cups and lifted the Champions League trophy.
Mikel started his official football career at the age of 12 when picked as a talented footballer from over 3000 young talents to play in Pepsi Football Academy. A team which at that particular time was well known for going around Nigeria to search for the best there is from all the upcoming future stars, young talents to later move on to rather more professional football. Already then Obi stood out to all the scouts.
He got picked to play in a top-flight team Plateau United also known for making stars from players like Celestine Babayaro, Victor Obinna, Chris Obodo and many more which moved on to playing in European teams and representing their country later on in their careers.
Later known as John Obi Mikel he was gaining headlines for his country at the FIFA Under-17 World Championships held in Finland. Subsequently he went on trial to South Africa club Ajax Cape Town, before joining Lyn in Norway.
During preparations for the 2003 FIFA Under-17 World Championships, the Nigerian Football Association mistakenly submitted “Michael” as “Mikel” for the tournament in Finland. He decided to keep the new name, saying that it had a special ring to it. On 31 July 2006, he stated that he prefers to be called Mikel John Obi instead of John Obi Mikel, as he had most commonly been called.
In the summer of 2005, Mikel played for Nigeria at the FIFA World Youth Championships held in the Netherlands. He had an excellent tournament until Nigeria reached the final, where they lost 2–1 to Argentina. Obi won the Silver Ball after being voted the tournament’s second best player.
