Back in Lagos and recovering from injury, Victor Osimhen sat down for a livestream and let the world in on a private moment of kindness from Super Eagles legend John Obi Mikel that he’s carried with him ever since.
Victor Osimhen didn’t just grow up watching the Super Eagles. He grew up dreaming of being one of them. And when the moment finally arrived, the first thing Nigeria’s greatest current player remembers is a quiet act of generosity from the man who was already a legend.
Speaking during a livestream session with popular Nigerian social media personality Carter Efe, the Galatasaray striker opened up about his first call-up to the national team and recalled how John Obi Mikel made him feel welcome in a way that went far beyond words.
“I met Mikel Obi when they first invited me to the Super Eagles,” Osimhen said. “We finished eating, and he told me to follow him to his room immediately, and he gave me money.”
A Boy From the Trenches Who Made It
Osimhen was back home in Lagos, spending a few days in Nigeria’s commercial capital before returning to Istanbul. He’s currently nursing a broken arm sustained during Galatasaray’s UEFA Champions League fixture against Liverpool. It’s a rest period that seemed to open him up, and he used it to speak freely about the people who shaped him.
His childhood was spent watching the same Super Eagles that Nigerian fans of a certain generation remember with deep affection. “We were watching Super Eagles matches when we were in the trenches,” he said. “You hear Nwankwo Kanu, Jay-Jay Okocha, Mikel Obi.” Those weren’t just players to him. They were proof that a boy from a Lagos street could reach the top.
Ighalo Was There Too
Before the Super Eagles, there was Odion Ighalo. Osimhen made no secret of the debt he owes the former Manchester United striker, who was Nigeria’s leading scorer and a constant presence during the years Osimhen was trying to make his own way. “He is an amazing human being, a great football player, a legend, and for me has made an impact, not only on me,” Osimhen said.
That admiration goes well beyond words. Back in February 2020, Osimhen travelled all the way to Belgium to watch Ighalo make his European debut for Manchester United against Club Brugge. He was there in the stands, not as a teammate or a pundit, but as someone who simply wanted to witness the moment firsthand. On Friday, the night before the livestream, Osimhen visited Ighalo at his home in Lagos.
Why Mikel’s Gesture Still Matters
The Mikel story is the one that lingers. Osimhen was a fresh-faced newcomer walking into a dressing room full of established stars. Mikel, who had been Nigeria’s captain since 2014 and was already a Chelsea legend, didn’t have to pay any attention to him at all. He chose differently.
In his early days with the Eagles, Osimhen shared the pitch with Mikel in two matches, against Zimbabwe and Senegal, before the Chelsea icon ended his international career in July 2019. But it wasn’t the games that stayed with Osimhen. It was the moment in that hotel room, the quiet “follow me,” and the cash handed over with no explanation needed. That’s the kind of senior player Nigerian football needs more of, and that’s the kind of story young players coming into the game today should hear.
Mikel went on to rack up 91 international caps and score six goals for Nigeria between 2005 and 2019. He won the Africa Cup of Nations in 2013, finished runner-up at the FIFA U-20 World Cup, and claimed an Olympic bronze medal. Since retiring from international football, he’s become one of Osimhen’s loudest advocates, consistently praising him on the Obi One Podcast and pushing for his move to Chelsea.
What This Story Tells Us About Nigerian Football Culture
There’s something worth sitting with here. Nigerian football has often been criticised for its dressing room politics, its factions, its senior players who close ranks against younger ones rather than lift them up. Mikel was the opposite. Onazi once described how Mikel ran the dressing room with enormous influence. He used that influence, at least in Osimhen’s case, to show generosity.
Osimhen is now 26 and the biggest-name Nigerian footballer on the planet. He’s the joint second-highest scorer in Super Eagles history. When the next crop of forwards gets their first call-up, the question is whether they’ll have their own version of this story to tell. For Super Eagles fans keen on backing Nigeria across the upcoming friendlies against Iran and Jordan, check out the Bet9ja welcome bonus before kick-off. New to Bet9ja? You can also find the current Bet9ja promotion code and everything you need to get started.
📌 Did You Know?
- Obi Mikel made his Super Eagles debut in 2005, a full 12 years before Osimhen pulled on the green jersey for the first time. The two generations briefly overlapped for just two matches.
- Osimhen travelled to Belgium in February 2020 specifically to watch Ighalo’s European debut for Manchester United against Club Brugge — a trip he made as an admiring fan, not a teammate.
- Mikel Obi appeared in 91 international matches for Nigeria, the fifth-highest cap count in Super Eagles history, and he served as captain from 2014 until his international retirement in 2019.
- Didier Drogba, whom Osimhen named during the same Carter Efe session as his primary footballing inspiration, spent three seasons at Galatasaray’s Istanbul rivals Fenerbahce between 2018 and 2019.
- Osimhen scored 28 goals in 32 games for Galatasaray before the Champions League fixture against Liverpool where he suffered the broken arm that sent him home to Lagos.
- John Obi Mikel won the UEFA Champions League with Chelsea in 2012, the same year Osimhen would have been roughly 13 years old growing up and watching football “in the trenches” in Lagos.
- Ogenyi Onazi, who played alongside both Mikel and later Osimhen in the national team, publicly confirmed that Mikel was so influential in the Super Eagles dressing room that he once influenced whether certain players received call-ups at all.
