Dear Mikel,
I’ve just been looking at you… I’ve just sat down in this my corner and I’ve been looking at you and the rubbish that you played in this World Cup. God knows if I had told you what was on my mind before now, FIFA would have banned Nigeria from competitive football for at least 5 years.Before the competition kicked off proper majority of Nigerians believed you would be key to the team’s chances, and if you had a good tournament the team would too. We had some concerns after the first few friendlies in which you played absolute rubbish, but optimistically waved your performances away chalking it down to the non-competitiveness of friendly games.
Oya the World Cup started and it was time to step up to the plate. Apparently you left your plate back on the bench at Chelsea where you have a designated spot complete with a power outlet to charge your phone while the games are played. Against Iran Nigerians cringed to watch you stroll round the midfield like you were the reigning World Footballer of the Year, losing the ball time and time again with your ‘big-man’ passes and over-exposing poor Ogenyi Onazi as you refused to help defend. Okay, maybe it’s because it’s Iran and Mikel will step up against Bosnia, we said. Wishful thinking. We suffered through another lethargic performance in which you were nearly invisible and we saw more of the linesmen than your otu Bottom. Thank God for Osaze and Emenike, two of our standout performers at the competition for combining sweetly and bagging the goal that won the game for us. Their excellent performances overshadowed your disappointing showing. Osaze, a 32-year old player was running his lungs out that day while Mikel, reportedly 27 years old (although we know better) was walking about the middle of the park like he was at a picnic. We sha won that game without your contribution…
Argentina vs Nigeria. The BIG day! The game we qualified for the World Cup to play! On one hand, we had the MVP of the 2005 U-20 World Cup Leo Messi and on the other we had the MVP runner-up in the same competition, Mikel Obi. It was expected that both ‘stars’ would renew their rivalry and influence the game for both their sides…We all saw how the story played out… Messi was in supreme form, scoring two sweet goals while Mikel Obi turned in another anonymous, god-awful performance that must have had Jose Mourinho frantically working the phones to managers of lower-league sides, trying to sell his professional bench-warmer to any club dumb enough to take a gamble on him.
Three games, no Mikel Obi… Unlike 2005 where he and Taiye Taiwo (who was 3rd most valuable player) were old men bullying their juniors and forming stars, Mikel was competing in a tournament of his mates and was brutally exposed as a lazy player whose style of play was a big minus to his team. Remember that Messi is supposed to be your ‘mate’ o, but in terms of achievements he has completely dwarfed the hell out of you since your breakout tournament in 2005.