Aston Villa has officially ended their 30-year-old trophy drought and clinched their first major European silverware in 44 years by defeating SC Freiburg 3-0.
Unai Emery’s side comfortably snatched away the game with goals coming from Youri Tielemans, Emiliano Buendia, and Morgan Rogers.
When the full-time whistle rung at the Tupras Stadium in Istanbul, celebrations were going to start.
But as the celebrations moved from pitch to the stadium gallery and locker room, a couple of Villa’s standout stars decided to use their massive global platform to settle a hilarious internet score.
John Obi Mikel, the former Chelsea midfielder legend, currently runs a podcast named “The Obi one” with sports broadcaster Chris McHardy.
The podcast features candid interviews with top-tier football figures – including former teammates, managers and rivals.
The internet is often quick to make memes out of any silly things and John Obi Mikel is the victim now.
The Nigerian, because of his podcast, frequently goes viral for his exaggerated English accent on the show.
His usage of British-inflected word “mate” to punctuate his sentences stands out even further
Because the podcast has become massively viral across social media for his distinctive storytelling style, several Villa players caught wind of one specific meme where John Obi Mikel was shouting “get back to the basics mayte”,
— Lewis Carlin (@LewisCarlin6) May 22, 2026
The clip became a social media meme and went semi viral.
Villa players like Ezri Konsa and Amadou Onana while celebrating in the locker room took their dig at Mikel.
Konsa was seen recording himself mimicking Obi Mikel‘s speeches and laughing uncontrollably.
The video instantly gained massive reactions and fans were saying that Konsa “cooked” Obi Mikel.
Mikel Obi is getting cooked even by Villa players😂😂 pic.twitter.com/I7uQGWlMPS
— Adeyemi of Eruwa 🇳🇬🇬🇧 (@Adeyemi_AFC) May 22, 2026
Jadon Sancho also was quick to took his dig.
He took on his Instagram and posted some pictures captioned, “GET BACK TO BASICS”🤣. Konsa and Watkins both went into the reply to troll the phrase as well.
While they were celebrating in the Villa Park stands Ollie Watkins took the mic from mings and sarcastically mimicked Obi Mikels “Get back to basics mate”.
Ollie Watkins, what a man 😂 pic.twitter.com/PF0aPQnqcp
— Josh Norris (@JoshNorris) May 21, 2026
There are no instances we could find of Obi Mikel criticising Aston Villa players, so in all likelihood, the trolling here is them just following an internet trend.
