Mikel John Obi confirms Chelsea exit in open letter as he departs for Chinese Super League

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Simon Johnson6 January 2017

Mikel John Obi today completed his move from Chelsea to Tianjin TEDA and admitted he had to leave Stamford Bridge for a new challenge.

Standard Sport first revealed in November that this would be the Nigeria international's last season at Chelsea and reported yesterday that he had opted to join Tianjin in the Chinese Super League.

The 29-year-old, who has been given a three-year contract worth around £140,000-a-week, has not been named in a matchday squad by coach Antonio Conte all season.

He had just five months left on his current deal and was pursued by a number of clubs, including Valencia, Marseille and Inter Milan, but found Tianjin's offer too good to turn down.

In a statement today, he wrote: "I haven't featured as much this season as I would have liked and at 29 I still have many years in the game ahead of me.

"With this in mind, I feel now is the time to seek a new challenge. I'm delighted to be joining Tianjin TEDA at a time that the Chinese Super League is really taking off.

"I look forward to helping Tianjin continue to grow both on and off the pitch in the next few years.

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"To everyone at Chelsea, goodbye and thank you. You will always be a part of who I am and I wish you the best of luck. I could not be happier to be saying goodbye with the club back where it belongs - top of the League."

Mikel won 10 major honours after joining from Lyn Oslo in 2006, including the Premier League twice, the Champions League and Europa League.

The midfielder becomes the third Chelsea player to leave for China in the last 12 months, with Ramires and Oscar joining Jiangsu Suning and Shanghai SIPG respectively.

Former Blues' striker Demba Ba also opted to move to the Far East when he left Besiktas for Shanghai Shenua in 2015.

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