Mikel Obi has thrived ceaselessly since arriving at Riverside Stadium, brightening the atmosphere around the 34,000 capacity arena, and alongside other players like Ashley Fletcher, Britt Assombalonga.
And the coach of the team, Tony Pulis, acknowledging the midfielder’s prowess and contribution to the team in the match against highly rated Marcelo Bielsa’s Leeds United spoke highly of his outstanding quality.
“We played well, both Saville and Wingy were brilliant with the energy they showed, played some good football and got the wing backs forward. Mikel was obviously the best player on the pitch by a country mile. He’s a good free transfer,” said Pulis after the game.
The Maestro, who is in a distinguished class of Nigerian players to have played at all age-grade levels for his country, followed up the masterful display with another sterling performance away to Blackburn, dictating play in the midfield and stringing passes that synchronised Middlesbrough into a harmony that left Blackburn spellbound.
Starting his career as a child prodigy, Mikel shone like a thousand stars playing for his country at FIFA U17 World Cup in Finland, 2003, coming second only to the inimitable Lionel Messi in a competition that seemed to herald the arrival of super footballer that experts predicted was ready to go to the very top of the round leather game and rule in the world of football for years.
His value, and the expectations for his future attained a stratospheric dimension when Chelsea and Manchester United tussled for his signature, a battle that ended in victory for Chelsea where the player spent years playing for the London club in a career moment that cannot exactly be described as stellar as he struggled to hold down a place in a team that had the resources to recruit the best in the early years of cash-abundant Roman Abrahamovich era.
While some conveniently adduced the presence of other established players in the centre of the pitch for Mikel’s sporadic presence in the first team, eccentric coach, Jose Mourinho also got his fair of the blame as he was accused of playing the player out of position, putting him at the base of midfield where it was suggested he got stifled, unable to express and enjoy himself in the more advanced area of the pitch where his technique-rich approach to the game could help strikers playing ahead of him to score goals aplenty.
Upon departure to CThe stock of Nigerian international Taiwo Awoniyi is on the rise in Belgium as he continues his scoring spree netting a total of four goals in five matches so far for his new club Royal Excel Mouscron in the Belgian top division.
The striker, a former national U-17 FIFA World Cup winner in 2013 was signed by English Premier League giant Liverpool in 2015 and has been on loan to a total of four different clubs across Europe. (Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands).
After failing to synchronise with their game plan at Gent in Belgium in the first half of the 2018/2019 league season having been sent out on loan by Liverpool scoring just once in 16 appearances, Awoniyi decided to join Royal Excel Mouscron, a team he flourished. In his first stint at the club he scored a total of nine goals in 29 appearances.
Since joining Royal Excel Mouscron in January of 2019, the striker has scored four goals for the club in five matches and the team is yet to lose a match also beating three of the top 8 team’s in the league in the process including Gent, Genk and Sporting Charleroi.
It took the talented striker just 68 minutes to score his first goal for his new club netting the winner against Oostende on the 20th of January. The Nigeria star in his second appearance scored a 90 minute goal to hand his team the maximum three points away from home against table toppers Genk.
Awoniyi has only failed to score just once for Mouscron and that was in their 3 – 0 home win over Victor Osimhen’s Sporting Charleroi. Despite the setback, the striker who has been compared to the legendary Rashidi Yekini returned to scoring ways as he netted his team’s opening goal in the 43rd minute against Gent in a 2 – 1 away win.
The striker who’s scoring instincts knows no bound was also on song on Sunday scoring the team’s first goal in the 47th minute against Cercle Brugge.
With his tally so far, Awoniyi remains Nigerians most prolific striker in Belgium in 2019 and one of the country’s most lethal striker presently.
ina, many in his home country and abroad thought he had gone conveniently to an uncompetitive arena for ‘pension’, a sentiment that showed their lack of understanding of a never-say-die midfielder, who soon got bored of being forgotten, preferring, and orchestrating a move back to Championship side, Middlesbrough, a step that looks like a good, well-thought out decision already.
And whatever you think of him, Mikel’s biggest strength is his class, a permanent feature of his soccer persona, which for a long time will continue to put him in the limelight.
