Career
Inter
In 2005, Obi was signed by Inter. In 2009, he had been noticed by José Mourinho and led occasionally to the first-team of Inter. His agent is Idroo Badoo.
In the summer 2010, Rafael Benítez definitively moved him with the first-team of Inter.
Obi made his debut for Inter on 29 September 2010 in a Union of European Football Associations Champions League group stage game against Werder Bremen. He played the final 10 minutes of the match after coming on as a substitute in the 80th minute for fellow midfielder Dejan Stanković.
Inter went on to defeat Werder Bremen in a 4–0 shutout. Obi made his Serie A debut on 17 October 2010 against Cagliari when he replaced Philippe Coutinho in the 66th minute.
Obi started the "Milan Derby" at Beijing for the Supercoppa Italiana on 14 November but had to be substituted after only 35 minutes because of injury, he was replaced by Coutinho.
In January 2011, half of him was sold to Parma for €750, along with Nwankwo Obiora for €300,000. However, Obi had stayed to play in Inter for the rest of the season. The 2011–2012 season his a really good season for Obi, who collects 27 presences in Serie A, 2 in Coppa Italia and 7 in Champions League, other than the one in the final of Supercoppa Italiana.
However, his season was cut short by a bad injury that forced him to a long period of rest.
Obi came back in the next season, 2012–2013, on 4 October, in the victory for 1–3 against the Neftchi Baku in Europa League scoring the goal of 0–2, which happens to be the 500th goal in Union of European Football Associations competitions for Inter. That is the first goal of Obi in the first-team
On 2 September 2013, transfer deadline day, Obi moved to Parma on loan for the 2013-2014 Serie A season. On 23 November 2014, Obi started the match and scored against Milan, an equalizer in a 1–1 draw at San Siro, becoming the first Nigerian player to score in Derby della Madonnina since Obafemi Martins, who scored on 11 December 2005.
This was Roberto Mancini"s first match in his second spell at Inter.
Torino
Joel Obi joined Torino on 2 July 2015 from Internazionale for a reported €2.4 million and in a 4-year contract. Obi made his international debut for Nigeria on 9 February 2011 in a friendly game with Sierra Leone in Lagos. He started the next 11 games in a row for the Eagles before getting injured near the end of 2012.
He was named in the preliminary squad for the 2014 World Cup.
He also was called-up in a friendly match against South Africa on 10 September 2014 where he very dommiant in the middle