John Obi Mikel revealed that he rejected Manchester United for Chelsea - despite Sir Alex Ferguson, David Gill and Roy Keane all wanting him to sign.

The 37-year-old went on to become a Chelsea legend after joining the Premier League giants in 2006, having stayed until 2017 with two Premier League titles to his name and a Champions League trophy.

However, his legacy in west London could have turned out very differently given he seemingly signed for United in 2005, prior to his move to Stamford Bridge.

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During his time at Norwegian side Lyn, Mikel - who was 17 years old at the time - trained with the Red Devils and impressed so much so that he signed a pre-contract with United.

A press conference was even held with the former Nigeria international wearing the club's home kit, but Chelsea stepped in, claiming they'd already agreed a deal to sign Mikel after dazzling Jose Mourinho while training with the Blues in 2004.

Mikel had a meeting with Sir Alex and told the United legend that his desire is to sign Chelsea with Ferguson walking out of the room after failing to get his man. On the Obi One podcast last year, he spoke of his reunion with the Scotsman and just how much the former United boss wanted him to join.

"I was s****ing myself, I was like 'should I go so hi or what', he was sitting over there with a couple of friends, David Gill was there, the former chief executive [of Manchester United], I was like 'oh my God he's sitting with the whole gang, the whole Mafia is there'," Mikel admitted.

"I was thinking do I go over and say hi and I was like 'f*** it', it's been f***ing 18 years, I'm sure by now [he'll talk to me]. I went over and said 'hi boss', he's like 'oh is it the one that got away'.

"It was an amazing time for me to see him because I haven't seen him in such a long time and to finally shake his hand and speak to him after everything that went on and he was so amazing about it. I doubt if I met him 10 years ago, it would have been much different."

The Chelsea hero revealed that Gill told him just how much stress his transfer saga caused him as he added: "He wanted me big time, even David Gill was talking about it and he told a friend of mine 'he [Mikel] turned my hair grey, the whole transfer saga turned me grey.

"It just showed how much they really wanted me, Fergie and David Gill wanted me, the players wanted me, Keano wanted me. Roy Keane used to be the man, he was the protector, I remember every time Sir Alex had to pick a team, he used to stick me together with Keano to protect me from Paul Scholes and Nicky Butt.

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