Marchisio Boateng
Former Ghana Black Stars and Chelsea midfielder, Michael Essien has disclosed that he almost joined another English Premier League side before Chelsea.
Joining French Ligue 1 side Bastia in 2000, the midfielder was just 19 years old and after his first two seasons he was already attracting bigger clubs in France and beyond.
In an instagram live with the two-time Premier League winner with Chelsea, Essien revealed that he almost joined Premier League giants Liverpool while at Bastia.
“I had a lot of offers when I was at Bastia. I was close to signing for Liverpool when Gerard Houllier was their coach”, said Essien
“I even went to Melwood to meet the coach. We had a talk and I returned to France but the offers were still coming . PSG, Marseille et al but I told Bastia I didn’t want to move and they also didn’t want to sell me at that time because they wanted to stay for another year which was fine with me because I also didn’t want to leave the club.”
After two years at Bastia, the Ghanaian midfielder decided to leave for greener pastures but still remained in France and in the Ligue 1 where he signed for Olympique Lyonnais.
“I thought it was too early to move to England. That was why I joined Lyon and later moved to Chelsea under Mourinho in 2005.” he continued.
“Lyon were my favourite team when I went to France because they were winning everything. I told my agent that if Lyon have come into the picture I’d like to join them.”
He later went to win two Ligue 1 titles with Lyon in 2004 and 2005 and later signed for Chelsea where he won nine (9) trophies across all competitions during his nine (9) years stay at the club.
