‘I used the disappointment of the 2008 Champions League Final to fuel me again in 2012. That was the last chance for the likes of JT, Lamps, Petr Cech and Drogba. It had become an obsession’ John Obi Mikel on Chelsea’s historic European title

At the start of the 2011-12 season, the Champions League was the last major trophy missing from the Chelsea cabinet.

Following Roman Abramovich’s 2003 takeover, the club had claimed three Premier League titles, three FA Cups and a pair of League Cups, but European success had eluded them.

The Blues went agonisingly close in 2008, only to be defeated by Manchester United on penalties in a rainy Moscow final, but four years later they were back, this time against Bayern Munich.

John Obi Mikel on Chelsea’s Champions League triumph

“[In 2008] Manchester United defeated us in the Champions League final in Moscow,” former Blues midfielder John Obi Mikel tells FourFourTwo. “I was on the bench and I was so disappointed that I didn’t start or even come on. I was sitting there thinking, ‘Oh my God, that would have been my first Champions League trophy.

“If I’d gone to Manchester United, I would have been a Champions League winner right now’. I felt that if I’d played in that game, the outcome might have been a bit different.

“But I used that disappointment to fuel me when we reached the final again in 2012, against Bayern Munich. During those years, I never gave up.

“As a team, we never gave up; we knew we could still win the Champions League. When we got to the final in 2012, that was the last chance for the likes of JT, Lamps, Petr Cech and Drogba.

“They were all going to leave the club soon, so it was our last chance to give them, and give Roman Abramovich, that trophy. It had become an obsession for us.

“That game was the biggest stage of my life – I thought ‘I don’t know when I’ll be playing in a Champions League final again’.

“It was my best game in Chelsea colours – I had an amazing game. Up until Didier Drogba scored our equaliser, then later scored the winning penalty, I think I was going to win our man of the match. It was down to how much I wanted it, how much we all wanted it. We were the first London team to win the Champions League.”

Mikel was speaking to FFT in association with streaming platform DAZN

For more than a decade, Joe Mewis has worked in football journalism as a reporter and editor. Mewis has had stints at Mirror Football and LeedsLive among others and worked at FourFourTwo throughout Euro 2024, reporting on the tournament. In addition to his journalist work, Mewis is also the author of four football history books that include times on Leeds United and the England national team. Now working as a digital marketing coordinator at Harrogate Town, too, Mewis counts some of his best career moments as being in the iconic Spygate press conference under Marcelo Bielsa and seeing his beloved Leeds lift the Championship trophy during lockdown.