Middlesbrough FC called him “A Rolls-Royce of a midfielder”, Fans and even children sing his praises: Nigeria’s midfielder John Mikel Obi is receiving a rain of tributes from the English Championship Club, which he joined in January.

The Nigerian international even got more accolades after Boro beat Blackburn Rovers away 1-0 on Sunday, He was widely commended for the feat.

Boro are now 5th on the table, with 54 points, with ambition to return to the Premier League in summer.

“Having John Obi Mikel is a cheat code in the Championship no midfielder can touch him”, said Ryan a Boro fan.

“In a season of terrible transfer windows, John Obi Mikel looks like an insanely good bit of business. What a player”, noted another fan, Neil Grainger.

Another fan named as Ian Smith tweeted: “Rightly or wrongly, Pulis(the coach) gets some stick for us being unable to bring players in, but by that rule he deserves some high praise for convincing Mikel to come to The Boro.

“What an absolute class player he is, almost embarrassingly better than those around him today.”.

“To the untrained eye, Mikel Jon Obi (cheers lads @boro) looks like a lazy bastard who doesn’t break sweat. After a while you realise he’s just a million miles better than everyone else and doesn’t need to”, wrote Barry Cellnet.

No wonder, the kids and the fans are singing about Mikel, now called the African Zidane, forgetting that the original Zinedine Zidane, though French, has Algerian-African blood in his veins.

Mikel who is 31 years old, started playing in Europe in 2004 with the Norwegian Club Lyn. From there, hebecame a coveted player by both Manchester United and Chelsea, but ended up with Chelsea where he spent 11 years, from 2006. He left to join the Chinese club, Tianjin TEDA between 2017-2018. He returned to England to play for Middlesbrough in January, invited by Coach Tony Pulis. (NAN)