John Mikel Obi arrived at Chelsea as the teenager who had already signed for Manchester United - but leaves as a key man of the club's greatest nights

As John Mikel Obi leaves Chelsea for a new adventure in China, the transfer fee stands at next-to-nothing. This is not an opportunity from the club he departs to cash in on the Chinese millions again.

Instead, it is a mark of recognition for the player's efforts and a gesture in respect of 10-and-a-half years of 'exceptional' service since he signed in 2006.

Back then, little was known of the Nigerian teenager who arrived from Lyn Oslo – apart from his sketchy history with Manchester United.

John Mikel Obi (second left) leaves Chelsea after a role in their 2012 Champions League win

Frank Lampard, Mikel, Salomon Kalou and Jose Bosingwa celebrate together in 2012

Mikel will move to Tianjin TEDA for a minimal fee as a thanks for his years of service

More than a decade on and, with two Premier League titles, four FA Cups and a Champions League win under his belt, Mikel's time at Stamford Bridge certainly has value - even if he perhaps did not fulfil his potential in the way some expected.

 

'I am pleased to get the chance to play for one of the biggest clubs in the world,' Mikel told reporters after signing a deal to come to the Premier League in 2005.

But that 'big club' was Manchester United, rather than Chelsea. Mikel was to wear the No 21, having agreed a four-year deal with the Old Trafford club.

Chelsea, though, claimed they had already reached an agreement with the player – Mikel had already been impressing Jose Mourinho in trial training sessions with the club's first team and the Blues were known admirers.

Mikel was unveiled by Manchester United at a hastily-arranged press conference in 2005

A copy of the contract that United signed to buy Mikel - but he ended up heading to Chelsea

JOHN MIKEL OBI'S CHELSEA HONOURS

Premier League: 2009-10, 2014-15

FA Cup: 2006-07, 2008-09, 2009-10, 2011-12

League Cup: 2006-07, 2014-15

Champions League: 2011-12

Europa League: 2012-13

Community Shield: 2009

 

Appearances: 372

Goals: 6 

A game of smoke and mirrors ensued, including allegations of a 'kidnapping' and time with a bodyguard in a safe hotel for Mikel, before things were worked out a year later.

United had agreed a £4million deal for Mikel initially. In order to successfully complete his transfer, Chelsea paid their domestic rivals £12m – plus a further £4m to Lyn.

Lyn director Morgan Andersen was later convicted of fraud and making false accusations in a case that stemmed from the Mikel debacle.

A subsequent High Court claim made by Chelsea, who said that ‘the transfer was based on a fraudulent misrepresentation, now proven by a court of law’, was settled out of court.

It was not the simplest of starts for a 19-year-old moving to a new country and a club far bigger than the one he was leaving. That Mikel had to adapt from the more expansive role he played in Norway to the defensive midfield position he is known for playing now was an added complication.

From the start, though, he was a player trusted by his managers. Mourinho handed him 22 appearances in a debut season in the Premier League. Ten of those came as a substitute – often as an attempt at engineering something of a human full-time whistle by the Portuguese.

Jose Mourinho was the Nigerian's first manager but immediately trusted him in the first team

Mikel in action during a Champions League game against Levski Sofia for Chelsea in 2006

Mikel holds off the attentions of Mario Gomez during the Champions League final in 2012

Mikel would be crowned as Chelsea's Young Player of the Year that season, while winning the Carling Cup and the FA Cup – where he starred in midfield alongside Frank Lampard and Claude Makelele to ebb out a victory in a drab first final at the new Wembley.

In Makelele, he had the perfect role model to follow but also an absurd benchmark to be judged by. As the Frenchman aged, Mikel became a more prominent figure.

He would lose his place on occasion and sometimes bore the brunt of frustration from his own support but every one of Chelsea's many managers through the last decade would recognise the Nigerian's qualities by the time the big games came around.

Guus Hiddink was arguably Mikel's biggest of supporters across his two reigns – first in another FA Cup-winning campaign in 2009 and then again when he steadied the ship after Mourinho's second exit last year.

Lampard, Michael Ballack and Didier Drogba proved key men in Mikel's Chelsea career

Mikel with Claude Makelele, Geremi, Lassana Diarra and Michael Essien and the League Cup

Mikel made 372 appearances for Chelsea and played under 10 different managers at the club

A well-established first-team figure by 2009-10, Mikel made 25 appearances in his first Premier League title win under Carlo Ancelotti but it was Chelsea's most-memorable year which proved to be his finest in 2012.

Mikel was one of just three players to play every minute of the quarter-final, semi-final and final of the Champions League where Chelsea saw off Benfica, Barcelona and Bayern Munich against all the odds. For many, he was the man of the match in the final in Germany – stemming the tide of the Bayern onslaught before Didier Drogba's winning penalty after 120 gruelling minutes at the Allianz Arena.

'That night, with lions on our chest and the fans behind us, we fought,' Mikel wrote in his farewell letter on Friday.

Just a week previous he had played the full 90 minutes as Chelsea beat Liverpool in the FA Cup final.

That he had to cope with the issues of a suspected kidnapping of his father - later found alive - at the start of that season was another indication of Mikel's impressive character shining through.

Mikel is at the centre of the celebrations as Chelsea toast their FA Cup win in 2012

The now 29-year-old celebrates scoring against Fulham - one of just six goals for him - in 2013

He did not feature in the Europa League final win against Benfica a year later but was still a key figure. Mikel's appearances in the Premier League alone only once dropped below 22 matches before this season.

He became Mourinho's way of closing out games again in 2014-15 — with the sparkling topping of an audacious backheel to set up a Diego Costa goal away at Everton — and then got his swansong under Hiddink to restore to some order to a Chelsea team in distress last season.

This campaign, his absence during pre-season in a bronze-medal winning appearance at the Olympics shoved Mikel to the back of Antonio Conte's thinking and the signing of N'Golo Kante and emergence of Nathaniel Chalobah have ultimately spelt the end.

Mikel scored six goals for Chelsea – a lowly figure that became the subject of laughs and jokes from team-mates and supporters. Macclesfield, Nottingham Forest, Fulham, Derby, Sporting Lisbon and Paris Saint-Germain were the unlucky recipients. Most of them were greeted with shocked delirium – notably in Paris last season.

Mikel and Frank Lampard on their knees after Chelsea's famous 2012 win at Barcelona

Mikel tracks the run of Alexis Sanchez during Chelsea's semi-final win over Barcelona

More silverware would follow in 2013 as Chelsea lifted the Europa League in Amsterdam

But his impact was always about much more. Mikel's 372 Chelsea appearances include some of the club's greatest ever nights and the most significant chunk of his career has been devoted to furthering their ambitions at home and in Europe from a largely unsung role.

Only four other foreign players - Petr Cech, Drogba, Branislav Ivanovic and Gianfranco Zola - played more times for Chelsea. 

Now, with a move to the Chinese Super League and Tianjin TEDA, as revealed by Sportsmail on Thursday, he steps away from the European football's elite. Mikel also had interest from the likes of Valencia and Inter Milan but instead heads for Asia.

Looking back, Chelsea will recognise that all the hassle with United and Lyn was more than worth it.

Gary Cahill grabs hold of Mikel to celebrate his last Chelsea goal - at Paris Saint-Germain

Mikel played in pre-season but a spell at the Olympics with Nigeria put him out of the picture

MIKEL'S OPEN LETTER 

To my Chelsea family,

After ten years, 374 appearances and eleven trophies, it is time to say goodbye.

Where do I begin? I joined Chelsea as a 19-year-old kid from the Norwegian Premier League, making my debut in the Community Shield. I say goodbye as a champion of England, a champion of Europe, and proud captain of my national team.

To play in the Premier League, the best league in the world, is every professional player's ambition. But to play for Chelsea, to become part of the Chelsea family, to work with some of the best managers and players in the world, has truly been an honour.

Every achievement I have been part of in my time at Chelsea holds a special memory: my first goal, against Macclesfield in 2007 (even though there were only five more after that!). The nail-biting end of the 2010 season - securing the title on the last day, scoring a record 103 goals in the process, and winning the FA Cup a week later. Didier's extra time winner against Manchester United in the 2007 FA Cup Final. Beating two of our biggest London rivals in League Cup finals. Winning the Europa League in Amsterdam, with one of the last kicks of the game.

Then there was Munich. We were desperate to make up for the disappointment of the 2008 final, but trailing with two minutes to go, against Bayern, in their own stadium, it seemed that once more luck was against us. But that night, with lions on our chest and the fans behind us, we fought. Up popped Didier, the rest is history, and to date we're still proudly the only team in London with a European Cup.

None of this would have been possible without the wider club's support. To Mr Abramovich, the club's staff, coaches, physios, and to the managers I played under at Chelsea, I want to say thank you.

But my biggest thanks must go to the Blues fans. You brought me into the Chelsea family, you sung my name, and were there with us every step of the way. Thanks to your support, on nights like in Munich, you made the impossible possible.

As you will know, I haven't featured as much this season as I would have liked, and at 29 I still have many years in the game ahead of me. With this in mind, I feel now is the time to seek a new challenge. I'm delighted to be joining Tianjin TEDA in China, at a time that the Chinese Super League is really taking off, and I look forward to helping Tianjin TEDA continue to grow both on and off the pitch in the next few years.

To everyone at Chelsea - goodbye, and thank you. You will always be part of who I am, and I wish you the best of luck. I could not be happier to be saying goodbye with the club back where it belongs - top of the league.

Keep the Blue flag flying high!

Mikel John Obi

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