Few players call daddy to your coach. If the technician in question is José Mourinho, the list is reduced. In fact, there is only one record of one ‘lucky’: Michael Essien. “Sometimes I see him as a father, because he was the one who took me to Chelsea (…). Everything has happened very quickly (…), He called me ‘daddy’ and said he’d be happy for you to come. As soon as he did, I said yes. I am always delighted to work with him. “These words are part of the Ghanaian midfielder's presentation press conference when, at the age of 29, he arrived on loan for a season at Real Madrid in 2012. Of course, with Mourinho as a coach.
The one from Setúbal expressly requested the arrival of one of his right eyes in the first Chelsea he directed, where I also land with your approval. In the white team he did not stand out as he did at Stamford Bridge, but he served as a luxury secondary and came to play 35 games before returning to London after the loan ended. His second stage as blue It was ephemeral, like his steps through Milan (2014-15) or Panathinaikos (2015-16), the last European places where Accra played his football. Indonesia's Persib (2017-18) and Azerbaijan's Saball (2019-20) would bring exoticism to a race in which he was considered the best '5' in the world.
Compared to Patrick Vieira in his early days at BastiaIt would not take long to attract the attention of higher-end clubs. Physically powerful, destructive, tireless, but with enough technique to tickle rival defenses, Essien became, for many, the best player in Ligue 1 at Olympique Lyon, where he would arrive in 2002 and leave a huge capital gain. after his departure in 2005. Yes Les Gones disbursed about 12 million euros to Bastia, Chelsea would reach 38 in 2005. Whose request was it? Indeed, of daddy.
The Champions of the Iniestazo
Dressed in blue, he would play 259 games, in which he scored 25 goals and distributed 18 assists, but above all, he became the heart of Roman Abramovich's first great Chelsea.. Champion of the Premier twice (2006 and 2010), the Champions won in 2012 sure had a special flavor. Not because of his performance in it or the very value of the biggest European trophy at club level, but because It meant removing a thorn that had been nailed since 2009. Barcelona fans, on the other hand, rememberThey have the date with joy.
Now without Mourinho on the bench, Gus Hiddink's Chelsea achieved a scoreless draw in the first leg of the semifinals at the Camp Nou. On the way back, at Stamford Bridge, our protagonist opened the scoring with a fantastic goal at nine minutes. The Barcelona of Guardiola, the one of the last sextet, drowned before the rocky English team, which arrived to claim several penalties that, a posteriori, Ovrebo, collegiate of the crash, acknowledged should have pointed out. He did not and Iniesta turned a nightmare into a Barça fairy tale with his shot at the squad defended by Petr Cech. As we say, in 2012, although with a much more secondary role and with a Chelsea turned into underdog, he managed to add to his particular showcase the Orejona who had resisted so much just before going to the new and previously mentioned call of Mou.
The Essien of 2021, Right to Dream and the Nordsjaelland
However, at 38 years old (he was born on December 3, 1982), Michael Essien is located in Farum, Denmark. What are you doing there? Take your first steps on the bench in the ranks of the Nordsjaelland of the Danish Super League. The former midfielder learns and is focused on evolving as a coach and is part of the team's coaching staff. Although his arrival would not be understood without the Right to Dream academy, which owns the club. “Right to Dream is unique because they do what no one else can. It's not just football, they help children in their education and bring (to Denmark) many boys from Africa. “Essien told Nordsjaelland media after being announced as part of the club's organizational chart.
The aforementioned academy, founded by former Manchester United scout Tom Vernon, made history by being the first non-profit organization to acquire a professional team. In addition, since then Nordsjaelland has served as a training team for many young people who stand out in Ghana, becoming the youngest First Division club in Europe, with an average age of 21.5 years. Mohammed Kudus is one of the great examples of the success of this mission, as the now emerging star of Ajax (20 years) was formed in Right to Dream and wanted to remember his former teammates in the celebration of the recent league title won by the ajacied.
A project that even managed to surpass the great dominator of Denmark, the Midtjylland, in the 2010 and 2011 cup finals or that he tasted the honeys of the Champions League in 2012-13. Just as they were the first professional team to be a full part of Common Goal, the organization headed by Juan Mata and whose members donate 1% of their salary to the Foundation. In this context, the Michael Essien of 2021 grows, what happened of giving lessons in the engine room of Chelsea or Ghana (he was international 55 times) to be a student in a club where social values are more valuable than goals.