Nigeria captain John Mikel Obi says says promotion to the Premier League with Middlesbrough would rank as one of his finest moments in football.
Mikel, 31, won two Premier League titles, a Champions League, Europa League and three FA Cup winners medals with Chelsea and joined Boro on a short-term deal in January.
“If we manage to pull it (promotion) off, it would be amazing,” Mikel told BBC Sport.
“It would be up there as one of my greatest achievements.”
Mikel Obi moved to the Riverside Stadium as a free agent after a lucrative stint in China with Tianjin Teda.
Boro have lost just once in the league since his arrival and are fifth in the Championship with 12 games remaining.
A drop into England’s second tier was something new for the Nigeria international, who captained his country at the 2018 World Cup and won the Africa Cup of Nations with the Super Eagles in 2013.
“I’m still hungry and want to win trophies. I’m never satisfied with what I have achieved. If I was, I would just sit at home,” he added.
“I want to achieve something with this club and that is to get this club promoted.
“I love challenges and I knew coming in here would be a challenge for me, and being in the second division would be a challenge for me.
“I knew this club would be pushing for promotion and managing to do that wouldn’t be easy.”
With a game in hand on all four sides above them, Boro are nine points adrift of the top two and an automatic promotion spot.
After 34 games they have the best defensive record in the division, however, they have laboured at the other end and scored the fewest goals of any side in the top 15.
“Middlesbrough are a massive club and should be in the Premier League – it is where it belongs for me,” he said.
“We still have a lot games to play, and if we manage to win quite a few of them, who knows?
“If we could get automatic promotion, fine, and if we get into the play-offs and that is how we do it, then that would be amazing as well.
“We just have to keep pushing.”
As for his own future beyond his short-term deal until the end of the season, Mikel was coy despite saying he felt “at home” and was “enjoying” his time on Teesside.
“I want to enjoy my football and enjoy winning games with this club, these players are an amazing group of guys,” he said.
“Every time we win a game you see that feeling of wanting to be in the Premier League and that is something I want to keep enjoying with them until the end of the season. And then we see where we are.”
2 Comments
Wish Mikel could say something like this regarding the super eagle. He never really push the National Team in Russia. Since then, he has abandoned the super eagle to their own destiny.
That is why he was dropped.
We appreciate him for what he has done for Nigeria, especially risking his club career to represent Nigeria at the Olympics (an action that arguably contributed to him being relegated to the Chelsea bench). But now that he has seemingly lost his passion for the SE, it is time to move on without him.
I salute the courage of our coach for dropping him despite the expected outrage from the fans.