EXCLUSIVE
John Obi Mikel says Sir Alex Ferguson has finally forgiven him 18 years after rejecting Manchester United to join Chelsea
Nearly two decades on, John Obi Mikel has revealed that Sir Alex Ferguson has forgiven him for his Chelsea transfer.
Mikel initially signed for Manchester United in 2005 and was even seen wearing the club shirt in a press conference before the Blues swooped in.
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Chelsea sent him to Norwegian club Lyn as they eyed a future deal and were quick to act when their Premier League rivals announced the move.
Mikel previously told talkSPORT that he revealed to Ferguson that he didn't mean to sign for United in a 'feisty' meeting.
But 18 years on, the pair reunited at Wembley for the Champions League final and the former midfielder revealed that all is forgiven.
Speaking to Jason Cundy and Andy Townsend on Breakfast, he said: "It's so good for the boss to finally forgive me after such a long time.
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"He mentioned it [the saga] a couple of times [during his career], it was like, 'You were the one that got away aren't you?' But he's a lovely, lovely man and 82-years-old, he's still strong.
"I told him, 'We want to have you here as much as we can, for as long as we can.' And he's like, 'Listen, you got away but you had an amazing career with Chelsea, so I wouldn't say anything wrong about that, but I definitely forgive you now.'"
Mikel then added further insight into one of football's most dramatic transfer sagas: "Well I can't tell you the whole story because we're going to be here all week!
"I signed for the club, obviously United came with the contract, I think Sir Alex sent over a scout to come help with the contract, like a pre-contract.
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"I wasn't 18 then so I wasn't allowed to sign a professional contract, so I signed a pre-contract with United. Then obviously Chelsea did send me to Norway to school and then play and to train with one of the professional teams there.
"Then when they saw the whole news on the TV, 'Oh, what's happening here? Well, Mikel has signed for United, a pre-contract.' Of course they had to send the agents, everybody down to Oslo to find out what's happened.
Ex-Manchester United coach Mike Phelan recalls the fear of being sacked by Sir Alex Ferguson over the famous 'balloon incident'
"They came down and that's when I was taken away from the club, I was sort of taken away somewhere hidden for like a couple hours and nobody knew where I was. Then finally I got flown out to London by Chelsea and locked away somewhere, so it went on for about a year, trying to sort it out."
He added: "I missed a year of football as well because it wasn't sorted for like a year, it dragged on for a year, it wasn't sorted out. So I missed a year of football, so that was really, really tough for my family, everybody was so worried.
"I missed playing, doing what I do which is playing football, for a year I was out. I couldn't play for anybody, FIFA was like, 'No, you can't play for anyone.'
"So I was out for a year, I couldn't train with any club, I couldn't be seen talking to any club because otherwise I'll be in trouble. So the whole thing, it was crazy but finally it got sorted.
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"18 years later I met the boss again and we talked about it, joked about it, and it was fun because he was there with David Gill [former CEO], who of course did the transfers for United.
"He was like, 'This transfer made me have grey hairs,' so yeah it was funny. We talked about it and laughed about it, it was good."
Mikel went on to make 372 appearances for Chelsea across all competitions, scoring six goals from midfield.
He won two Premier League titles, four FA Cups, two League Cups, the Champions League and Europa League during his glittering spell.