32 Greatest footballers in the history of the English Premier League - Part 10
24. Michael Essien:
Michael Essien is a professional football player who is currently playing for the English Club Chelsea and the national team of Ghana. Michael Essien is an all-round midfield player who can play as an attacking midfielder and also as a holding midfielder.
However, the Ghana boy is usually featured as a box-to-box midfielder because of his ability to play in both the positions, holding midfield and attacking midfield. Michael Essien has also played as a centre back and right back; this just adds to the versatility
the player possesses.
Essien started to play professional football from a football club called “Liberty Professionals” which exists in his home country. In the year 2000, Essien made a move to France and joined the French club SC Bastia. Essien’s main career was made in that
French club, as he managed to appear 60 times for the team. Throughout the 60 games that he played for the French side, he kept on impressing all the fans and showed the world that he was an outstanding talent. After just three years, the French League Champions,
Olympique Lyonnais tried to sign the versatile midfielder and a deal was agreed. He was in Lyon for two years, and he managed to win the French League title for two consecutive years. During the 2003-2004 and 2004-2005 seasons, Essien kept on appearing for
the French Champions and helped them win the two titles that they craved for. During these two years, Olympique Lyonnais managed to become a part of the UEFA Champions League, the best and the most prestigious award in Europe. As Essien was a part of the French
Champions, he got the opportunity to play in this tournament for the very first time. Essien’s five years in France helped him acquire the French citizenship. There is a rule in Europe that a club can only have a certain amount of players that are not part
of the European Union. Essien, after being confirmed as a French citizen, was an easy target for all the big clubs that were looking for players that are a part of the European Union.
His services and efforts in the French club were well recognized as the “defensive midfielder” was seen scoring goals and also defending for his team and with such a great ability, clubs from all over Europe tried to snatch him away from the French club,
and he became a target to many big clubs like Arsenal, Manchester United and Chelsea. It was rumoured that the Spanish giants Real Madrid also wanted the holding midfielder, but later the deal was snatched away by the English team, Chelsea.
Essien was taken in by Chelsea just after two years that he played in the French Club, Lyon. Jose Mourinho was in charge of Chelsea and the famous Portuguese coach has always recruited players from lower teams, making them shine. One of the biggest examples
is the African player Didier Drogba who came out of nowhere and started to shine in the English club Chelsea, and he is now one of their biggest assets.
When Essien joined Chelsea, he was bought for 24 million pounds and that price tag made him the most expensive Chelsea signing ever. He made his debut against the English club Arsenal, as he wore the number 5 jersey for “The Blues.” He managed to feature
in the Champions League for the English club and scored some marvellous goals for them. He managed to score against Barcelona, however, Chelsea conceded a goal in the last second and the dreams of becoming the UEFA Champions League winners was just shattered
as Andres Iniesta scored a fabulous goal from outside the box. However, he managed to grab many victories alongside Chelsea. The season that he joined the English club, they won the English Premier League as Jose Mourinho waved goodbye to them and the next
year they did not manage to win it.
With Chelsea he managed to win two FA Cups, two Leagues and the Football League Cup. He also appeared for the UEFA Champions League final against Manchester United, which eventually the Red Devils won while the match went down to penalties and Chelsea were
the ones who lost the chance of becoming the European Champions.
While being a success for the English club, he was a very good player in the national team of Ghana as well. He has appeared for them during the Africa Cup of Nations and also the FIFA World Cup 2010. However, he did not manage to make it to the FIFA World
Cup 2010 because of the injury that he suffered right before the beginning of the tournament.
Tags: