A cross section of players of the Nigeria Under-23s, currently campaigning at the Rio 2016 Olympics have revealed the reasons why 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 Rio 2016 Olympics, with the captain scoring the first goal in their 2-0 quarterfinal win over Denmark.
The players in their closest, 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.
Another of the team player, who played in the middle alongside the Chelsea star also told Owngoalnigeria.com, that the name is their own later 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”, A player in the team told Owngoalnigeria.com.
Another player said to his face, they call him “Senior Man” but off it, he is refereed to as Odogwu as they can’t call him by his name due to the respect they have for him.
