Mateo Kovacic scored an earth-shattering shot against Liverpool, which many fans compared to Essien's world wave. In fact, Essien's career at Chelsea is also a legendary existence, and let this article review the Ghanaian player's playing career.
As early as 1999, Essien began to make a name for himself in the youth competition, and he performed well in the U17 World Youth Championship and gained the attention of Manchester United. At that time, he played a game with the team's youth team, leading the Red Devils' U17 to win the Derby County youth team; Manchester United offered Essien a contract after the game, but because of the work permit problem, Essien could not play for Manchester United; so he chose to go to France first and join the veteran team Bastia under the strong opposition of his mother. In Bastia, the young Essien has already delivered a good performance, leading the way to qualify for the Europa League; in 2003, Essien, who has gradually established his reputation, was invited by Lyon, PSG and other Ligue 1 giants, and finally oversaw Lyon, who was striving for ligue 1 for 7.8 million euros.
In Lyon's two seasons, he conquered Ligue 1 at a breakneck pace, not only pushing Edmílson and Mahamadou Diarra to become the main backs of the team, but also winning the award of The Best Player of Ligue 1 after the 2004-05 season; leading Lyon to complete four consecutive Ligue 1 championships. In the summer of 2005, Chelsea took him back for £24 million to break the team's transfer fee record, while also selling midfielder Tiago Mendes as a trade condition to Lyon (transfer fee of £10 million), fans wondered if it would be the right decision to trade more than 10 million pounds plus Essien with Thiago Mendes.
As a result, Essien quickly responded to questions with performance; the Ghanaian had extremely strong physical qualities, while his ability to sweep, run, protect the ball, advance, pass, vision and long-range shooting was also quite strong, and he was an all-rounder back. He and Makelele formed an unrivalled back-up pair that became Frank Lampard's reliable backs, helping Chelsea to win the Premier League title again with a hot streak (2005-06).
The following season, Chelsea faced a wave of serious injuries, which made Essien show his importance even more. With Terry and Ricardo Carvalho injured, he and Paul Ferreira were temporarily formed into a centre-back combination, but the performance was surprisingly good. In that season, Essien became the best in the team with his excellent performances at the back, centre-back (and sometimes right-back), and his world wave against Arsenal became a classic in the hearts of fans.
Essien has since held an important position at Chelsea, scoring 25 goals in 256 games with the Blues over the years; there are many "golden balls", such as the long-range shot against Barcelona in the 2008-09 season, which is a classic of the classics. However, in the summer of 2011, Essien was severely damaged in the warm-up match, leaving him out of the 11-12 season for more than half a year, even if the team finally won the Champions League, and Essien was no longer a main member of that year.
In the following season, he was invited by "Bole" Mourinho to play for Real Madrid on loan, and was said by Chelsea to take "Daddy" home. But after suffering a major injury, Essien has slowly declined and left the Blues in January 2014, ending his nine-year blues glory years.
Since then, Essien has also played in Milan, Panathinaikos in Greece, Bandung in Indonesia and Sabaiil in Assabad, enjoying football in different places. In 2020, he decided to retire and then take up the position of assistant coach for danish team North Zealand, which opened the curtain for his coaching career. In the editor's mind, Essien's status and contribution in Chelsea are no lower than any of The backs such as Kante and Makelele, and the low-key but steady "Buffalo" is really worthy of the name of "Chelsea Legend".