Mikel Obi: I Was Scared When I Joined Chelsea

Nigeria international John Obi Mikel has revealed how scared he was during his first days with Chelsea.


The Chelsea midfielder can still remember vividly his first day at Chelsea's Cobham training round when he joined as an upcoming 19-year-old.

"I came into the dressing room that day literally shaking," he recalls in Chelsea magazine.

"I saw the players that were in there – the likes of John Terry, Frank Lampard, Didier Drogba, Claude Makelele, Geremi, Michael Essien, Michael Ballack, Andriy Shevchenko – it was crazy. And I was just 19.

"I was shaking the whole day because I couldn't talk to any of them. I didn't know what to say to guys like that. They were really nice guys, but it was scary. It can be tough coming into a dressing room like that as a younger player. You had to earn the right to be among them."