He reminds me of Carlo Ancelotti, Mikel speaks on Eguavoen

John Obi Mikel, a former midfielder for Chelsea and Nigeria, has compared Augustine Eguavoen, the Super Eagles’ acting head coach, to Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti.

This praise follows Nigeria’s impressive performance against Benin Republic and Rwanda in the AFCON 2025 qualifiers.

After the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) was unable to reach an agreement with German tactician Bruno Labbadia, Eguavoen was named the team’s interim coach.

Mikel Obi

On his Obi One Podcast, Mikel—who had played for top teams throughout his career—compared Eguavoen to his previous Chelsea coach and mentioned how the latter, who had also coached him at the national level, encouraged players to express themselves freely on the field.

“I know the interim manager now, Augustine Eguavoen, who managed me when I was a kid. U-17, he was my coach, took us to the World Cup.

Fantastic guy, lovely guy, a manager who gives you all the freedom in the world to express yourself, speaks to you really well.

“He reminds me so much of Carlo Ancelotti, no jokes about that, his man management is top. He speaks to players really well. He is so humble. He communicates with players really well, puts his arm around you.

“He gets his players on his side, that’s so important. You could see coming in on short notice and getting the team to play so well. You can’t teach them so much in such a short space of time.”