Some players of Nigeria’s Under-23 soccer team at the Olympic Games, Rio, Brazil have revealed the reasons Chelsea star Mikel Obi was given a new nickname.
Mikel has been earning rare reviews for his role in inspiring Nigeria to the semi-finals of the football event of the Olympics, with the captain scoring the first goal in their 2-0 quarterfinal win over Denmark.
The players call Mikel “Odogwu”, a name in the Nigerian dialect of Ibo which means ‘leader’ due to his leadership qualities which has rubbed off on them as young players.
A member of the team, who play in the middle alongside the Chelsea star, also said that “the name is our own way of showing respect” to the Chelsea star.
“The name is what we call him in our circle, it was started by Azubuike Okechukwu and the rest is history but we hardly call him that to his face”.
