Mikel John Obi: the 2013 peak and the long goodbye

The peak

Mikel John Obi's defining year was 2013. At the Africa Cup of Nations that January, he was one of the most important players as Nigeria won the tournament for the third time in their history. His performances were good enough that the Confederation of African Football named him in their official Team of the Tournament, alongside teammates Vincent Enyeama, Efe Ambrose, Victor Moses and Emmanuel Emenike. By the end of that year he was shortlisted for African Footballer of the Year and finished as runner-up, the single highest individual recognition of his career, recorded in the same year he won his second major trophy with Chelsea, the Europa League.

It capped more than a decade of effort to establish himself at the top of the African game after a chaotic start in Europe, when his move from Norwegian club Lyn to England was contested by both Manchester United and Chelsea, settled only after a £16 million three-way agreement and a court case in Oslo. By 2013, none of that mattered. Mikel was Nigeria's on-field leader and a continental standard-bearer.

What came next

The recognition in 2013 did not translate into a sustained run as one of Africa's best players. He stayed at Chelsea for four more years, extending his contract in December 2012 to keep him there until 2017, and collecting further honours including the 2014–15 Premier League and League Cup. But he never again reached the individual heights of that single year, no further shortlistings, no further Team of the Tournament selections.

After leaving Chelsea in 2017, his career became a tour of less prominent leagues. He spent two years in China with Tianjin TEDA before a short-term move to Middlesbrough in the 2019 winter window, where he made 19 appearances and scored once. A two-year deal at Trabzonspor in Turkey ended after seven months, cut short by mutual consent as he raised concerns about playing through the coronavirus pandemic. He then signed for Stoke City in August 2020, where under manager Michael O'Neill he was a regular in a mid-table side, before a final stint at Kuwait SC.

Internationally, his last major tournament was the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations, which he had announced in advance would be his final appearance for Nigeria, and in which the team finished third. He retired from international football at the end of that competition, 14 years after his debut.

A long career, one real peak

Mikel John Obi's story is not one of a player who flared brightly for a single season and vanished. He had 11 years at one of Europe's biggest clubs and won nearly every honour on offer there. But if there is a single season that the record books point to as his very best, individually, it is 2013, the Africa Cup of Nations title, the Team of the Tournament place, the runner-up finish for African Footballer of the Year. Everything after it was solid service, first at Chelsea and then across China, England, Turkey and Kuwait, without ever again reaching that same personal high point.