Top 7 Nigerian footballers that have played for Chelsea | OneFootball

Chelsea is one of the most successful clubs in the modern history of British football. We have to admit they could have been more successful in the past. Their golden age started when Roman Abramovich bought the club. From 2003, the club managed to win many international and league titles.

Only with Jose Mourinho, they managed to win 3 Premier Leagues, 3 League Cups, FA Cup, and Community Shield. In 2012, they finally won the UEFA Champions League for the first time. They repeated the same thing in the season 2021/2022 with Tuchel. Also, it is worth mentioning that they won UEFA Europa League 2 times – in 2013 with Benitez and in 2019 with Maurizio Sarri.

Some people claim that capital is the only reason why Chelsea has become a successful club. However, we can’t agree with that. Someone needs to use that money and bring the right players.

Many superstars have been playing for Chelsea. The club’s management often looks for players from around the world. Many of them are Nigerians!

It is hard to number all the Nigerian players that have played for Chelsea. But, in this article, we want to discuss the most popular ones!

Betting on Chelsea

The number of players from Africa in the current Chelsea squad isn’t small. However, neither of them comes from Nigeria. It is no secret that Chelsea isn’t in the best possible form. They are in 8th place, and we will see how their season will continue. You can go to bestbettingsites.com to check out the odds the best sports betting sites in Nigeria give to Chelsea. Unfortunately, most of them do not believe Chelsea has any chance of winning the title this year. According to many bookmakers, they will end up somewhere between 4th and 8th place.

That’s why we would like to go back to the past and talk about the most successful Nigerian players. There are 7 of them we would like to talk about, and they are:

John Obi Mikel

Without any doubt, Mikel is the most successful Nigerian football player that has signed a contract with Chelsea. He came to the club in 2006 and stayed there for an incredible 11 years. During his period in the club, he has won all the trophies one club could win. He was there when Chelsea won the Premier League, UEFA Champions League, and UEFA Europa League. He was not the leading player during his time spent in the club, but he certainly influenced the remaining part of the team. That’s why we are pretty sure Chelsea fans will never forget him.

Victor Moses

Victor Moses had some excellent roles in Chelsea. Many people were skeptical when Moses came to Chelsea from Wigan in 2020.

However, he was a big wish of former coach Antonio Conte. The club primarily sent him on loan, but when he got back, he managed to win a couple of trophies with his teammates. He won Europa League and FA Cup twice, and Premier League once. We are pretty sure that not so many players have managed to win that many trophies in England.

His career really is rich, and it looks this way:

Celestine Babayaro

The younger generations probably do not know or do remember who Celestine Babayaro was. The mainstream media of that time liked to say he was the African version of Roberto Carlos. He joined the club in 1997. The club broke a record with this transfer. It was 2.25 million pounds which were incredible for that period.

People say he is one of the most successful Nigerian footballers that played for Chelsea. We can’t either agree or neglect that. Chelsea was not too strong in that period. But, during his presence at Stamford Bridge, the club won 4 trophies – UEFA Cup Winners Cup, UEFA Super Cup, Charity Shield, and FA Cup.

Ola Aina

Unfortunately, Aina did not get the chance to show what he knew. He played for all the younger teams, from U11 to U21. Mourinho decided to give him an opportunity to join the first team. Unfortunately, the competition was pretty tough. He decided to leave the club and sign a contract with Torino.

Kenneth Josiah Omeruo

It may seem strange, but Omeruo is one of the Nigerian players that has stayed in Chelsea for the longest period. He signed a contract for the first time in 2012. However, we never really got the chance to play for the club. He was constantly on a loan after he joined Chelsea from Standard Liege. In 2019, he decided to leave the club and sign a contract with CF Leganes. We can’t blame the coaches for why he didn’t get the chance. Chelsea has always had some fantastic center defenders.

Kevin Tamaraebi Abraham

Some people probably do not know that Tammy Abraham has Nigerian roots. However, he never played for Nigeria. He decided to support the England national team and improve his football career that way. We have to admit he had an impressive role in Chelsea during one season. However, it seems that one season was insufficient for him to get a long and better contract. That is probably the main reason why the player decided to join Roma.

Generally speaking, he was mostly on loans to different clubs. But he also got the chance to be part of the starting eleven. In total, he scored 30 goals in 82 games. We can’t neglect the influence he had back then.

Fikayo Damilola Tomori

Like in the previous case, some people do not even know that Tomori has Nigerian roots. Unfortunately, he never played for Nigeria. Instead of that, he played for Canadian and England young national teams. His role on Stamford Bridge wasn’t bad. However, it seems it was not good enough for the coaches and Chelsea management. That’s why they decided to sell him to A.C Milan. It turned out this transfer was amazing for him. Immediately after he joined the club, A.C Milan managed to win the Scudetto after many years.

Conclusion

As you see, many Nigerians have played for Chelsea. Some of them are born in this country while others only have Nigerian roots. Generally speaking, Mikel and Moses were probably the most significant players from the list. But we can’t neglect the role other players had as well.