Michael Essien‬
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 05/2014

Club information
Current club:
Milan
Number:
15

Youth career:
Liberty Professionals: 1998-1999

Senior career*

Bastia: 2000-2003
66x apps / 11x goals

Lyon: 2003-2005
71x apps / 7x goals

Chelsea: 2005-2014
168x apps / 17x goals

→ Real Madrid (loan): 
2012-2013
20x apps / 2x goals

Milan: 2014-
7x apps / 0x goals

National team:
Ghana: 2002-
52x apps / 9x goals

‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 25 January 2013

Michael Kojo Essien (born 3 December 1982) is a Ghanaian footballer who plays for Milan and the Ghana national team. He is a midfielder who has often been touted as a box-to-box midfielder for his ability to exert energy in supporting offensive and defensive play and for his tough tackling style which has earned him the nickname "The Bison". Essien can also play as a defender, both on the right of defence and in the centre.

Essien began his career playing for Liberty Professionals in his home country. In 2000, he moved to France joining Bastia. Essien spent three seasons at the club appearing in over 60 matches before joining league champions Olympique Lyonnais in 2003. 

At Lyon, Essien won back-to-back league titles in 2003-04 and 2004-05 and also played in the UEFA Champions League for the first time. During his five-year stint in France, he acquired French citizenship. 

In 2005, Essien signed with Chelsea for a fee of £24.4 million and, at the time of his signing, was the most expensive African footballer in history. At Chelsea, Essien helped the club win the Premier League in 2006 and 2010, as well as three FA Cups and one Football League Cup. 

In 2008, he appeared in the UEFA Champions League Final. He has won the Chelsea Goal of the season award twice, in the 2006-07 and 2008-09 seasons.

Essien is a Ghanaian international. At youth level, he represented his country at the 1999 FIFA U-17 World Championship and 2001 FIFA World Youth Championship with the latter team finishing as runner-up. 

Essien made his senior team debut in January 2002 and has represented his nation at three Africa Cup of Nations tournaments and the 2006 FIFA World Cup, where Ghana reached the Round of 16. He is often referred to as the Bison for his tough tackling style, boundless energy and physical presence on the pitch.

International career
Essien's international career started with the Ghana U-17 national team, the Black Starlets, when he played in the 1999 FIFA U-17 Championship in New Zealand and won the bronze medal. In 2001, even though he was one of the youngest players in the tournament, Essien took part in the 2001 FIFA World Youth Championship with the Black Satellites in Argentina. 

The Satellites finished runners-up to hosts Argentina. His exceptional performances captured the attention of many and was widely tipped to be one of Africa's next rising stars. 

He made his competitive senior debut in the 2002 African Nations Cup against Morocco on 21 January 2002; but had played for Ghana in a Pre-Tournament friendly against Egypt on 4 January 2002.

On 16 May 2006, Essien was selected to be part of the team that represented Ghana at the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany. He played in midfield with team captain Stephen Appiah formerly of Fenerbahçe and Sulley Muntari of Internazionale.

Essien played in Ghana's 0:2 defeat to Italy, their 2:0 victory over the Czech Republic, and the 2:1 victory over the United States, and helped Ghana become the only African team to reach the second round of the 2006 World Cup. 

However, Essien was suspended for Ghana's second round match against Brazil and could only watch as Ghana lost 0:3. Upon the team's return to Ghana, Essien said that the team had gained invaluable experience and would be aiming to make the next finals, held in Africa for the first time in the tournament's history at South Africa 2010.

In the 2008 Africa Cup of Nations, Essien turned in another brilliant performance, driving the team to the semi-finals with his power-packed performances. In the quarter-final against Nigeria, when team captain John Mensah was dismissed on the stroke of the hour for a professional foul on Nigeria's Peter Odemwingie, Essien took over the captaincy for the rest of the game and eventually won 2:1.

He was voted as an All-Star Player during the tournament. The Team of the Tournament was decided by the Technical Study Group (TSG) after careful observations of all the tournament's matches.

During an international match played against Libya on 5 September 2008 Essien ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament playing for Ghana in the World Cup qualification stage and was out of action for six months, missing the majority of the 2008-09 season, before returning on 4 March to play for Chelsea Reserves against Aston Villa Reserves. He scored the last goal in the 4:3 loss. He still managed to take part in 10 of Ghana's 11 qualification matches, clocking up more than 800 minutes of game time, as Ghana finished at the top of their group and sealed a spot at the World Cup. 

It was announced on 27 May 2010 that Essien would unfortunately miss the World Cup after he was told that he would not fully recover from his knee injury until the end of July, more than two weeks after the tournament had ended.

Since then, Essien has announced that he will be standing down from the Ghanaian national side for the near future in order to focus on his career with Chelsea, having suffered two significant injuries whilst playing for Ghana in recent years. Having recovered from those injuries, Essien subsequently promised his availability to his nation very soon.