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As Star Wars fans prepare to invade the cinemas Manchester United supporters are celebrating their latest arrival from a galaxy far, far away. As far as Sir Alex Ferguson is concerned there is only one Obi that matters.

John Obi Mikel has attracted a lot of attention for a teenager who's played just three first-team games in his life, but the Nigerian has already experienced more than many players manage in their entire careers.

Ever since he was selected to enter the Pepsi Academy in Lagos eight years ago Mikel appeared to be on different level to his contemporaries, embarking on a remarkable journey that took him to Plateau United in Jos, Manchester United, Ajax Cape Town, Lyn Oslo and Chelsea before heading back to Old Trafford...

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"Middlesbrough football club announced today that they have agreed a fee with Portsmouth for the transfer of striker Ayegbeni Yakubu," said a spokesman.

Yakubu is the latest recruit to boss Steve McClaren's striking resources after mixed fortunes during his four years at the helm.

Szilard Nemeth was signed by his predecessor Bryan Robson, but only arrived after his departure.

McClaren later broke the club's transfer record to buy Massimo Maccarone from Empoli for 8.15 million pounds in the summer of 2002, but the player is now back in Italy.

Last summer saw McClaren -- he is assistant to England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson -- sign Dutch striker Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Australian Mark Viduka, though, the latter has suffered an injury-plagued season.

Boro will now attempt to secure the futures of Brazilian midfielder Doriva and Dutch international Bolo Zenden over the next few weeks.

The club booked a second successive UEFA Cup campaign with Sunday's draw at Manchester City, which saw City striker Robbie Fowler's late penalty saved by Mark Schwarzer.

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"We are going to formally ask his agent, who got his license through our association, to appear before us and explain this very disturbing situation.

"I have just got back from the Under-17 African Championship in The Gambia and we need to find out what is happening.

"We do not want our young players to be put in situations that will ruin their careers," Galadima told BBC Sport.

Shittu told BBC Sport that he is prepared to answer a formal summons from the NFA to explain his role in the ongoing affair.

"I am more than ready to explain to explain my conduct to the NFA whenever I am summoned to appear before them."

Shittu, who claimed that he took his client out of Norway for his own safety, dismissed claims that he 'kidnapped' Obi for personal financial gain.

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THIS IS, ABOVE ALL, THE STORY OF A boy. A boy who, at 16, saw his father grant an “irrevocable power of attorney” to a football agency on another continent, thousands of miles away. A boy who, eight months later, was signed away by his father to another agent, one whom he had never even met.
He was shipped to Norway, a month after his father signed him away (along with 30 per cent of his earnings for the next two years). Two days after his 18th birthday, on April 24, he made his debut for Lyn Oslo, the club his agents transferred him to. Six days later, after only 90 minutes of competitive football, Lyn announced that they had sold him to Manchester United for a sum rumoured to be £4 million, a Norwegian record.



And then things got scary. Men he had never met began to threaten him and his family. He secretly fled the country and was spirited to London and hidden away, not knowing what future, if any, he would have.

Outside the locked doors, older men in suits armed with mobile phones, legal documents and goodness knows what else fight over this teenager. The battleground stretches from West London to Manchester and from Nigeria to Norway to Switzerland. No resolution is in sight. The threats keep coming, and while he has said that he trusts the people he is with, he does not really know them, not like he knows his father, who was a footballer but in a different era, when things such as this did not happen. He has been told that everything will be OK, but people are angry, the voices on the phone are threatening and his family is far, far away.

And this boy, who wanted only to play football, sits there terrified, caught in a legal/criminal/political thriller that would make Michael Crichton proud. This is the compelling story of John Obi Mikel.

The midfield player was born on April 22, 1987, in Jos, Nigeria. His childhood was relatively normal. He would disappear to play football when there were chores to be done and he was headstrong, preferring the dusty pitches near his home to the classroom. “Everything depends on God. You can’t predict life,” Michael Obi, his father, told The Times. “But we always knew he had something in him when he was a kid.”

In 2003 Mikel spent time at Carrington, United’s training ground, with the Nigeria Under-17 team. There he caught the eye of John Shittu, a Nigerian emigré who works for The Sport Entertainment & Media Group (SEM), an agency based in North London and run by Jerome Anderson, an agent who was once the stadium announcer at Highbury.

Shittu travelled to Nigeria and persuaded Michael Obi to grant SEM “power of attorney” over his son, so that they might arrange a transfer to a big European club. But then Shittu disappeared. In the meantime, Mikel’s reputation kept growing and the family were besieged by middlemen promising great riches. One summer’s day, Obi relented and agreed to grant a mandate to another agency, Excel International Management, represented by a Fifa agent named Daniel Fletcher. The family never met Fletcher, so they did not get the chance to assess whether he could be trusted with their child. “I never saw him. I saw many different people who claim to represent him,” Obi said. “But we signed the agreement because, at the time, we had not heard or seen Shittu and Fletcher’s people said they would get my son a move to Manchester United. So we decided to give him a chance.”

Enter Rune Hauge, the controversial Norwegian agent who was once given a lifetime ban, later reduced to two years, by Fifa, the world governing body, for his involvement in the Arsenal “bung” scandal of the 1990s that ended George Graham’s managerial reign at Highbury. Chapter VI, Article 12 of Fifa’s transfer regulations prohibit a minor from moving from one country to another unless his family move, too, and “for non-footballing reasons”. Although Mikel was the only one to go to Norway, where there is a will (and clout), there is a way. The Norwegian FA approved his transfer to Lyn, who are managed by Henning Berg, the former Manchester United defender. Berg, like many top Norwegian players, is a former client of Hauge, who remains one of the most powerful figures in the Norwegian game.

At that stage, Mikel’s future remained unclear, but it was obvious that Lyn was merely a stepping stone, a way to get around work-permit requirements that prevented him from moving directly to the Barclays Premiership. Naturally, SEM wanted him to obtain the best deal, as did Fletcher, so both agents touted him around to a number of Premiership clubs.

But then, according to Fletcher, Morgan Andersen, the Lyn general manager, stopped returning his phone calls. Then United, with whom Fletcher had been speaking on Mikel’s behalf, also cut off contact, telling him thatMikel did not want him involved.

In the meantime, SEM offered Mikel to Chelsea. In August they arranged a meeting in Oslo between Andersen and Chelsea, but Andersen was left feeling snubbed. “If they had respected us then, things may have gone differently,” Andersen told VG, the Norwegian daily. “But [Chelsea’s representative] was so occupied with his mobile phone and everything else that I walked out on the meeting. We were miles apart. They tried to use a small club.”

So Lyn decided to sell him to United. On April 30, at a hastily-arranged press conference in Oslo, Mikel posed with a United jersey and announced: “It’s totally fantastic to come to a club like Manchester United.” United confirmed the deal to the Stock Exchange.

But then, ten days later, Mikel disappeared. And everything stopped making sense. He turned up in London, squirrelled away in a secret location by Shittu, who insisted that Mikel wanted to join Chelsea, not United, and claimed that the player had been receiving threats. That is the one thing that Shittu, Fletcher and Andersen seem to agree on. Where they disagree is who was doing the threatening.

Andersen has claimed that Shittu has been intimidating Mikel, effectively holding him hostage, saying that “the situation is more dangerous than anyone realises”. Fletcher, in a statement released last week, insisted that Mikel is being “intimidated and coerced into acting against his wishes” and that his wish is to join United.

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The young, sought-after soccer star John Obi Mikel, who's been playing for Oslo club Lyn, emerged from two weeks of hiding on Tuesday. Top clubs are fighting over him, and Mikel himself keeps sending mixed signals.


John Obi Mikel, right, emerged in Paris Tuesday to report for training with Nigeria's U20 squad. At left, his agent John Shittu. PHOTO: SINDRE J OLSEN



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Mikel arrived at the Hotel Mercure Tuesday morning along with his agent John Shittu and fellow Lyn player Emanuel Sarki. Mikel wasn't exactly chatty, though.

"I'll talk later," was the only thing Mikel told Aftenposten's reporter in the hotel's lobby.

Mikel travelled to Paris to report for training duty, albeit late, for the junior national squad for Nigeria, his homeland. Nigeria's U20 team is gearing up for the World Champions in The Netherlands.

The team's coach had ordered Mikel to show up for the training session in Paris if he wanted to play in the World Championships.

Mikel went underground May 12 in the midst of a conflict over a pending transfer arranged by Lyn to top club Manchester United. His agents were furious over the transfer, as were officials for rival top club Chelsea, who claimed Mikel should come play for them.

Lyn set up security around Mikel right after the Manchester United deal was announced in late April, saying the club feared for his safety.

It remains unclear what Mikel himself wants to do. He initially expressed jubilation at signing with Manchester United, only to say later that he really did want to play for Chelsea.

Lyn has claimed Mikel is being threatened by his agents, who wanted him to go to Chelsea, and fear he's a pawn in an intimidating game involving money and power.

Mikel's agents, on the other hand, claim Lyn threatened Mikel into signing for Manchester United.

© 2005 AFP

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SIR Alex Ferguson broke off his summer holiday in a bid to secure the signing of Nigerian teenager Jon Obi Mikel, according to a report.

Mikel seemed to have signed for United last month, but then publicly stated a desire to join Chelsea claiming he had been "coerced" into joining the Reds.

The saga has seen two of the Premiership's powerhouses go head-to-head, and Ferguson is determined to land a player who he rates very highly.

To that end, Ferguson and his youth academy director Jim Ryan flew out to Emmen, in Holland, where Nigeria were playing Brazil in the World Youth Championships, according to The Guardian.

It is not known whether Ferguson managed to speak to Mikel, but the trip was unannounced for fear of alerting Chelsea.

Ferguson has recently been given hope in his quest for the player by Daniel Fletcher, the player's agent, who in a letter to the Premier League and Football Association said Mikel still would like to join the Reds.

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Quincy Owusu Abeyie is not a household name yet in Holland, not like your team-mates Ryan Babel or Hedwiges Maduro who play for Ajax and the full national team. Can you tell us something about yourself? Your name for starters, where does it come from?
My parents are both from Ghana. My last name, Owusu Abeyie, comes from my mother's side. It's a Ghanaian name. But I myself was born in the Netherlands, in Amsterdam.

You started your career at Ajax…
That's right. First, I played for a year or so at a local club called SC Bijlmer but I joined Ajax when I was 7. I played there for a long time before I moved to Arsenal when I was about 16. I've been in London for almost 4 years now.

When you were a kid at Ajax were there any players you looked up to especially?
I adored Patrick Kluivert. I always thought he was an amazing forward. He has all the tools a striker should have. I'd check out his tricks and his moves and try to imitate them. Outside of Ajax, I think Ronaldo is the best forward around. There's so much to learn from him, his power, his speed. It's a pity he never quite got back to the level of play he used to have before his injury, but even now, he is still doing all these things he used to do. And then of course there's my Arsenal mate Thierry Henry…

You've been at Arsenal for almost four years now. Have you been having any luck breaking into the first team? I played some games with the first team back when I was 16. I've played in the Carling Cup, been on the bench in the FA Cup. I made my first start in the Premiership last season, against Portsmouth.

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Baggies Block Kanu’s Move
07.13.2005

Premiership

Premiership miracle side West Brom has blocked attempts by Super Eagles striker Nwankwo Kanu to leave the Hawthorns ahead of the new season which gets underway in just over three weeks.
Following repeated reports in the British media over the summer that Baggies’ manager Bryan Robson saw the Atlanta’96 hero as surplus to requirements at the club, the Nigerian was ready to move his tent away from the team, which survived the drop on the final day of last season.
But after putting a call through to the man, prevented from becoming Super Eagles coach by Sports Minister Col. Musa Mohammed (rtd) in late 2003, Papillo was told categorically that he would not be allowed to leave.
“The manager (Robson) assured him that all that he (Kanu) had been reading in the British press was not true because he was still considered to be an integral part of the team,” a friend of the player revealed yesterday.
THISDAYSports also learnt that the Baggies boss, however, told the lanky player that as a mark of their desire to keep him at the Hawthorns they would not lower their buy out clause inserted in his contract which stands at £4 million.
This is seen as another ploy to keep him since the Baggies know that it would be difficult for another Premiership club to be ready to commit that kind of investment on a player who will soon turn 30.
Clubs said to have been interested in the former Arsenal star include Manchester City, Aston Villa, newly promoted West Ham United and top Greek club Olympiakos.
The stumbling block to any firm commitment on the part of the clubs, however, has been the ‘buy out clause’.
Kanu joined then newly promoted West Brom from Arsenal at the end of the 2003/4 season after the Gunners refused to renew his contract.

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Bauchi — The man, whom Flying Eagles’ star, John Mikel Obi confessed groomed him for the big stage, coach Ayeni of Pepsi Academy is poverty-stricken.

In an emotional and tearful interview with Sports Vanguard in Jos, Plateau State, coach Ayeni, who equipped Mikel Obi with the necessary weaponry to dazzle in the midfield, confessed that all is not well with him and his family.

"Life has been very tough with us, we are just living by the grace and mercies of God, who has been so profound in supplying our needs the way He only knows best how to do. But left for me, this life has been wicked to me because after all the efforts one has made to the development of football in this country, it is a shame that one is still battling with poverty", said coach Ayeni, who said that Mikel Obi has been avoiding him since he came back from Holland, where he shone like a million stars with the silver-medal winning Flying Eagles squad.

"Mikel confessed to everybody that I was instrumental in his career but the fruits of my labour are sadly missing because Mikel, has been shunning me like a leper, ever since he came back from Holland. It is a shame that a player, who never dreamt of coming into affluence, does not recognise the little contributions of people like me. I am so sad", coach Ayeni told Sports Vanguard in Asmara Hotel in Jos.

Coach Ayeni’s sordid confession was told in the presence of top official of the Youth Sports Federation of Nigeria (YSFON), Ben Ekpo, who wondered aloud how Mikel Obi could forget about his roots in such a short time of romancing with fame that comes with doing well in the game of soccer.

Ekpo, the image maker of YSFON, advised Obi and other top Nigerian players who are excelling in European leagues not to forget about the blocks that built them back in their struggling days in Nigeria.

"It is really a shame that our players seem to forget how to recognise the little efforts that organisations such as ours and other coaches in the land contributed to their progress. They should give back to the community through organisation of competitions and at times, support coaches that moulded them.

"They should emulate George Weah and Ronaldo, who never forgot their past and in fact, are still helping those who helped them", said Ekpo.

On his part, coach Ayeni, who hailed Mikel Obi’s exploits at the WYC, said the player should remember him during these trying times.

"I need his support, nothing is too small because I am broke", said coach Ayeni.

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The midfield star is believed to be nursing a groin injury after his team's 2-1 win over West Ham in the English Premiership last Saturday.

"Okocha has got in touch to say he will not be available for the game because he has an injury," NFA spokesman Robinson Okosun said.

Youth international John Mikel Obi is now expected to start against Algeria in place of the injured Bolton star. Also out of the World Cup game due to injury is Italy-based defender Daniel Ola.

Officials said Ola who plays for Serie B side Cesena has been replaced by PSV Eindhoven defender Michael Lamey, whose mother is Nigerian.

At least ten players have so far reported at the Nigerian training camp in Faro, Portugal.

Nigeria lie in second place behind Group Four leaders Angola in the joint World Cup/African Nations Cup qualifying tournament.

Both teams have 15 points from eight matches but Angola lead the standings by virtue of their superior head-to-head record.

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