Jose Mourinho disclosed he did not know Mikel John Obi before he joined Chelsea despite his fantastic performance at the 2005 FIFA U-20 World Cup.
Most of the football world was introduced to Mikel John Obi at the 2005 FIFA U-20 World Cup in the Netherlands where the young Nigerian shone like a million stars.
The Flying Eagles lost in the final of that tournament to Argentina and Mikel won the silver ball, second only to Lionel Messi as the best player in the competition.
Jose Mourinho however revealed that he did not know Mikel at the time and recanted their first meeting was in his early days as a young player at Chelsea.
Mourinho recalls his first meeting with Mikel Obi
The Portuguese manager was a guest on an episode of the 'Obi One podcast' where he made several revelations including his first encounter with Mikel and how he was positively surprised by the Nigerian's abilities.
"The first time I saw him was quite fun, he was even training at Chelsea and one day I was asking for a young player to come because I needed a young player to make my training work well, they spoke with me about some Nigerian guy that was living in Norway," Mourinho said.
"The first question I asked was, 'he's 17, is he strong enough physically?' they told me yes he is, so let him come. I was expecting some normal player, I saw immediately that he was not normal," Mourinho continued.
Mourinho also delved into the controversy that surrounded Mikel's move at the time with Manchester United also very keen on landing the young Nigerian.
"Of course, Sir Alex also knew that he was not normal and then there was a fight that was not normal and then everything ended in the best way for Chelsea and the best way for him," Mourinho said.
The Special One jovially rounded up, "He stayed at Chelsea for more than 10 years, he won everything, he won his money and he could play in Nigeria number 10."
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