Former Chelsea and Super Eagles star playmaker John Mikel Obi has bagged a top award at his present club Stoke City. He has been named Stoke City’s top ball winner for the 2020-2021 season. The award came after he became one of the players behind Stoke City equaling their club record for clean sheets in a single season.
Stoke City had a total of twenty-one clean sheets, which means that they levelled the record set by the Stoke City side that won promotion from this division in 1979. Fifteen of those twenty-one matches had the Nigerian international John Obi Mikel fully involved.
The award rewards players with the highest ball recoveries, and this involves the player having the ability to win the ball back for his team. Mikel made 266 successful ball recoveries beating competition from his fellow teammates Rhys Norrington-Davies who made 182 recoveries, Harry Souttar (174), James Chester (173) and Nick Powell with 169 recoveries.