By Tunde Ajibade
Sometimes you get stuck between earning your daily living and realizing your dreams. Like an engineer being offered a lucrative bank job; at first you are glad you have a good job offer but deep down inside you know it isn’t what you really want and worse still it’s taking you further away from that dream engineering job you’ve craved since childhood. But you accept the offer for the present benefits intending to hop off the bus and join the train to your desired destination sometime soon. After one year you consider reviving your engineering career but you can’t leave your job now that you haven’t really found your feet. You can’t leave after two years either because you are about getting married neither can you after 3 years when you are expecting your first child. Before you know it you’ve spent eight years in the banking industry and further away from the engineering dream.
Eight years. That’s how long John Obi Mikel has spent as a talented artist working in the banking hall as a teller. Or how else can I describe Nigeria’s next Okocha playing in the Makelele role? It doesn’t get worse than that. From being touted as the next Jay-Jay to being lined up as the next Makelele. Our very creative midfielder whose primary responsibility was to break down stubborn defenses with his clinical passes is now saddled with the responsibility of keeping his team’s shape and making them hard to break when there is a lead to protect. Our football artist is now England’s number one anti-football agent.
In all the time he has spent at Chelsea Mikel has never come close to being a world class defensive midfielder. To put it a nice way, his style of play has evolved. The demands of the defensive midfield position have seen him sacrifice his attacking instincts for an excellent sense of positioning. Instead of incisive passing he now chooses the safest option when passing. He seldom ventures into the opposition’s 18-yard box. His two goals last season came from set pieces and his total goal tally for Chelsea is just double of that. Even as a defensive midfielder, Mikel lacks the aggression to constantly barge into opponents and put some measure of fear in them like Roy Keane and Micheal Essien. He doesn’t take 30 yard screamers either. There is no denying the fact that he is one of the best in that position when it comes to slowing down the tempo of the game and keeping possession but that is only a fraction of what a world class defensive midfielder offers. It is therefore no surprise that he has been pushed to the background once again by one of the best defensive midfielders on current form. Right now, Mikel isn’t the super skillful attacking midfielder he was touted to be.
However, while we are quick to criticize his insistence on remaining at Chelsea, we must note that Mikel has only traveled down the road described earlier on. He has been faced with the decision of moving elsewhere, most likely a smaller team, in a bid to realize his potential as a creative midfielder or remaining a squad player at Chelsea. At Chelsea, Mikel is sure of a couple of things. A lifestyle he loves in London, huge pay day, his girlfriend beside him, a well-defined role in the team, and trophies to add to his collection (Mikel is currently the most decorated Nigerian player ever in European football). in my opinion all he did was sacrifice the craving (if it exists) to play a more prominent role as an attacking midfielder for the benefits I just listed. It is a decision many of us make. I have many friends with engineering degrees working in the banking hall and I am sure you can relate to that. They plan to quit and return to their chosen line but most of them never get to that point. They end up sacrificing their dreams for an assured income and lifestyle. It truly does take a whole lot to leave your comfort zone.
I also do not think we are in any position to define fulfillment for Mikel, those who find themselves in that position, or anyone else. While it is truly disappointing to see Nigerian football “lose” a great talent who was meant to define a generation, we cannot say for certain that Mikel himself is disappointed with the turn of events. He looks like a happy young man to me (I even hear he is the clown of Chelsea’s dressing room). With a huge income, an awesome love life (apparently), a record label of his own, and in a city he loves, many of us will give anything to be in his shoes. Most of these were made possible by the same career that we deem to be a huge disappointment. We cannot therefore choose the one aspect that indirectly affects us as the defining factor for his career or life as some of his critics imply. Same applies to my engineer friends in the banking hall. We can’t choose to call their careers failures when the same career was able to provide luxurious or at least comfortable lifestyles for their families. The fulfilment we think they lack from their jobs might pale in comparison to the comfort it provided their families.
I have come across a couple of people who took the bold step of jumping out of the moving bus in search of their career dreams and I’m always quick to commend their bravery. Even those who end up with success stories admit that it wasn’t at all easy taking that step. The decision to leave one stable job for a better one isn’t as easy as it sounds let alone leaving a lucrative position. It is easy to sit and decide when you aren’t in that position and you are only looking at it from one angle. For those who find themselves in that position the key to making the decision may just lie in defining what brings fulfilment to you. A good risk analysis is a must too. But at the end of the day only you can decide what truly makes you happy. Mikel seems to have chosen an assured lifestyle over fan’s accolades. What do you choose?
Tunde Ajibade is a seasoned IT professional whose love for the computer is second only to his love for the round leather game. He repeatedly attempts to make more sense out of an ordinary game of football by picking life lessons from football events and stories.