Mark Clattenburg has named former Super Eagles captain and Chelsea legend as one of the five most annoying players that he refereed.
His words: “I have picked Mikel because of the incident during a Chelsea v Manchester United match in 2012 when he accused me of making a racist comment, which was not right and I was later cleared by the FA”.
He claimed Mikel only heard the allegation from his team-mate Ramires, who did not speak English.
According to him, other Chelsea players have since apologised but nothing from Mikel.
“He has never apologised and that is disappointing because it could have ruined my life”.
He recalled Mikel had the chance to say sorry and speak to him about it during a Nigeria friendly in the United States before the World Cup in 2014 but he never did.
Craig Bellamy, Roy Keane, Jens Lehmann and Pepe are also on Clattenburg’s list.