Nigeria international Brian Idowu has expressed his delight at training with the Super Eagles stars after making his debut in a friendly against Argentina.

The Amkar Perm defender admitted that he moved to another class after two training sessions with ex-Chelsea ace John Obi Mikel, Arsenal’s Alex Iwobi and Leicester City youngsters Kelechi Iheanacho and Wilfred Ndidi, players he used to watch on television before meeting them face-to-face in Krasnodar for the first time on November 11, 2017.

”Everything is new, you do not know anybody, nobody knows me, it’s unclear how they will take me, what will be the situation, how I will look in training,” Idowu told Amkar Perm’s official website, fc-amakr.org.

”I watched as a real football fan of John Obi Mikel, who at Chelsea took all the big titles, Ndidi and Iheanacho, who play in Leicester, and Iwobi from London’s Arsenal. A lot of good players, whose game I used to watch on TV.

”And then they greeted me, we are partners in the team and now we will train together.”

Idowu also rated John Obi Mikel the best player in the Super Eagles, saying: ”John Obi Mikel has a high level.

When I watched his games on TV, it did not seem so. And now I trained with him, looked alive and realized that he had not played in vain for so many years, a great player.

”Yes, all the guys are individually very good, technical. They play in the leagues of Turkey, Belgium, Germany and knowingly represent their team.”

Idowu was eligible to represent Nigeria as he has a Nigerian father and his mother is half-Russian, half-Nigerian, though the defender was born in Russia.

Brian Idowu had a debut to remember after scoring the third goal in Nigeria’s friendly match against Argentina in Krasnodar.

The 25-year-old plays for FC Amkar Perm.