Ex-Nigeria international midfielder John Obi Mikel has revealed the prospect of playing under Jose Mourinho at Chelsea made him ditch Manchester United.
The West African had just signed for the Sir Alex Ferguson's side from Lyn in 2006 but in a dramatic change of mind, he ended up joining the Blues.
During his time with the Londoners, the 35-year-old went on to win two Premier League titles, the Champions League trophy, three FA Cups, the Uefa Europa League and the League Cup.
"I was 18 years old and I just wanted to play football," Mikel told Naija FM in a recent interview.
"I had already signed for Manchester United, but then I decided that I wanted to go to Chelsea because of Mourinho, and Roman Abramovich.
"Chelsea looked like a more exciting place to be, but I’m happy because it was one of the best decisions of my life.
"I enjoyed my time there, I stayed there for a very long time, I won everything. In the end, I won everything."
Meanwhile, the former Super Eagles skipper has also opined why Romelu Lukaku has struggled to consistently perform at Chelsea.
"The league is totally different. The English league is too strong, too powerful, too fast, whereas the Italian league is too slow," the former Blues midfielder said.
"The English league has too much quality. The pace of English football is way too much for the Italian league.
"In the Italian league you can play until you're 40 years old, but in the English league you're putting in way more work."
Chelsea spent a club-record £98 million ($120m) to bring Lukaku back to Stamford Bridge from Inter Milan last summer, having seen him fire the Italian giants to Scudetto glory in 2020-21.
Lukaku only managed to hit 15 goals in 44 appearances across all competitions for the Blues last season as he struggled to live up to his price tag, and has already been linked with a move back to Italy.
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