Chelsea star John obi Mikel has stated that he is hoping Nigeria can make a positive impact at the World Cup 2014. The 27-year-old goes into the competition is one of the players to watch from the African perspective. He is at the prime of his career and after having recently helped Nigeria when the African cup of nations, he’ll be hoping to do the same at the international stage as well. However, Mikel is someone who does not have experience of playing in previous world cups and this will be his first.

Nigeria are in a group were qualification to the knockout stages is certainly not beyond them. Argentina will definitely be the favourites to get through first, but the likes of Iran, Bosnia, and Nigeria all have enough opportunities to fight for the final qualification spot. Since Nigeria finish the group stages against Argentina, they would ideally like to get maximum points against Iran and Bosnia. Mikel place in a different position at international level compared to where he does play for Chelsea.
He is much further forward in the pitch and will be looking to use his attacking instincts to good effect. This Nigerian team is considered to have a lot of potential with several players at the peak of their careers.

"This is my first World Cup. I want to make sure we achieve something coming here. We don't just want to come and make up the numbers, we want to do well. I have to make sure I lead by example. We are all driving in the same direction. We all know what we want and hopefully we will have a good tournament," said the Chelsea midfielder. John obi Mikel has been heavily linked with a move to Spain or Italy after dropping down the pecking order at Chelsea.