My dream is to feature in American NFL, says Mikel Udengwu

For Chielotam ‘Mikel’ Udengwu, a 21-year-old American football star at Texas State University, United States, starring at the highest level of American football and enlisting in the National Football League (NFL) remains his target.

Mikel, who is currently making a mark with the varsity team and donning Jersey No. 52 is known for his strength, physical presence, determination and steadily developing into a promising player with his eyes on American NFL, which is within reach with discipline, courage and right focus.

Named after former Super Eagles captain John Mikel Obi by his mother, Hon. Dr.  Gloria Chijioke Bertram-Okoli, Mikel rising football career has turned out to be the formation of destiny and a fulfillment of prophecy.

Born on September 6, 2005, the mother, in naming him Mikel, was inspired by one of Nigeria’s emerging football stars then John Obi Mikel, who had become the rave of the moment after he made a wonderful outing and announced himself on the global stage at the FIFA Under-17 World Youth Championship, capturing the imagination of football fans.

It would be recalled that on August 17, 2005, John Mikel Obi became the star of the 2005 FIFA World Youth Championship team in the Netherlands, where Nigeria reached the final against Argentina. Mikel won the Silver Ball finishing behind Lionel Messi, and was widely celebrated amidst media sensation.

He later became a subject of intense international transfer interest that year before he settled for Chelsea Football Club in pursuit of his football career.

Remarkably, in the euphoria of the celebration of the talented Mikel and the radiance of his performances at the time, a young pregnant mother, Gloria, prayed that she would give birth to a son and the boy would be named Mikel.  Just weeks later, precisely on September 6, 2005, Gloria gave birth to her son and named him Mikel. Her prayer became a prophecy and a lamp guide to her son’s destined path. 

Recounting her story, Hon. Dr. Gloria reminisced on how she grew up in Jos with her siblings while Mikel Obi and his parents also lived in Jos at the time. “We were all living in Jos then, Mikel and his parents lived in the neigbourhood too”, she recalled.

But her faith was aflame that her child would grow, rise to prominence and make his own mark in the world. Amazingly, twenty-one years later, that childhood prophecy has acquired an intriguing dimension. The boy, Chielotam ‘Mikel’ Udengwu, is now a young American football star in the United States.

He first played successfully on the Fort Lewis College team before transferring to Texas State University, where his presence is making a mark with Jersey No. 52.

But the prophecy neither handed him a career nor guaranteed success; it gave him a story and a powerful expectation to live up to. For Gloria, the name was a mother’s declaration upon his son to become somebody and make his name known. But today, 21 years later, her son is carrying that name onto a very different football stage.

Interestingly, the two Mikels began their journeys in the same remarkable year – one rising as a Nigerian youth footballer towards international stardom, the other was being born into a mother’s prophecy. One became a celebrated Nigerian football star while the other is writing his first chapter as a promising talent.  And that may be the most beautiful part of the story: destiny does not always repeat itself. Sometimes, it creates a new version of the dream. For this young Mikel, the prophecy is not the destination. It is only the beginning.