The Rise and Fall of Micheal Essien

There are those that think that Essien is too old to still be playing the game. But he doesn't feel so.Be that as it may, Essien, the former Chelsea and Madrid player, will have to find a new adventure where he can contiinue his playing career. But must he under go such treacherous snubs from club to club after such an illustrious career?

The player, who learnt his trade in France, was one of the great midfielders of the 2000’s, but time catches up with everyone.

Essien was first talked about during his time at Lyon. His great performances for the French side meant that Chelsea signed the player, making him one of the key parts of Jose Mourinho’s team.

He had the best years of his career with the ‘Blues’, maintaining a consistently high level of performance in the first four years of the six he spent with the club. His final season with Chelsea was marred by injuries, but he was part of the squad that won the 2012 Champions League.

After Chelsea, he spent a season with Real Madrid, which coincided with Mourinho’s first season at the club. Mourinho was so fond of the Ghanian legend that he recently said he was Essien’s ‘White Daddy’
“He was not my player, he is my son – I am his white daddy,” Mourinho said during an Interview with a Malaysian TV recently.

“He was probably the only one who took me to his home, to the real home. To the place he was born, to the street where he played football as a kid. He made me fall in love with Ghana, with Accra where he lived, because then I had a better understanding of his mentality.”

The United boss also praised the lengths Essien was prepared to go to for his clubs and his team-mates. “I understand why as a player he was ready for everything, he was ready to die for the fellow players, for the club, for the manager, why he was ready to play like he did for me at Real Madrid with a knee that was not a knee anymore,” he added. “It was a destroyed knee but with that personality, that desire and that mentality he suffered, always he suffered, but always with a smile. Michael smiles a lot.”

Essien’s international career started with the Ghana under-17 national team, the Black Starlets, when he played in the 1999 FIFA U-17 World Championship in New Zealand and won the bronze medal.

He was part of the team that represented Ghana at the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany. He played in midfield with team captain Stephen Appiah and Sulley Muntari and helped Ghana become the only African team to reach the second round of the World Cup. However, he was suspended for Ghana’s second round match against Brazil and could only watch as Ghana lost 0–3.

It was announced on 27 May 2010 that Essien would miss the World Cup after he was told he would not fully recover from his knee injury until the end of July, more than two weeks after the tournament was to end. He was therefore no part of the team that reached the world cup quarterfinals in South Africa and missed the semis after Luis Suarez Handled the ball on the goal-line and Asamoah Gyan missed the resulting penalty to break the hearts of all Africans.

Following on from his time with ‘Los Blancos’ he spent a while at AC Milan, but after that his career started to go downhill.

After two years with the Italian giants, he moved to Panithanikos during the 2015-16 season and then went to Persib in Indonesia, the same club that cancelled his contract earlier this year...with a crude Snub.

On 17 March 2018, Persib's club chief executive, Zainuri Hasyim said that Persib have now released Essien because the club already filling their maximum quota of foreign players based on the PSSI's regulation.

Essien had wanted to continue his career with the Romanian club CFR Cluj, but their coach Edi Iordanescu rejected him due to his age, as ‘Sport.ro’ reports: “We don’t need 35/36 year-old players. That’s why I put a halt to the negotiation”.

However, the Ghanian wants to find a new destination to continue his career and does not feel he is ready to retire just yet. There are those that think that Essien is too old to still be playing the game

Be that as it may, Essien, the former Chelsea and Madrid player, will have to find a new adventure where he can contiinue his playing career. But must he under go such treacherous snubs from club to club aftet such an illustrious career?