Mikel Obi hails Michael Essien for helping him at Chelsea

Mikel Obi hails Michael Essien for helping him at Chelsea

Former Super Eagles captain Mikel Obi has hailed Michael Essien for helping him at Chelsea

He told the Athletic “Suddenly, I was sharing a dressing room with all these players I had watched on television back in Africa,”

“I was sitting next to Lassana Diarra. I’d be there thinking, ‘Oh my God, it’s Didier Drogba. It’s Frank Lampard. It’s John Terry’.

“Michael Essien (who joined from Lyon in the summer of 2005) really helped me. Michael always told me I was a good player and just reminded me to bring the ball down, control and pass. If you need to dribble, dribble. If you don’t need to, just pass. You are strong. You are fast, too. If you can, just push the ball past and run, run, run because they cannot catch you.

‘”He was the guy who really helped me and made me have a lot of confidence.”