Michael Essien Reveals Club he Almost Joined Before Sealing Chelsea Transfer

Former Chelsea midfielder, Michael Essien, has revealed the football club he almost joined before sealing a transfer move to Stamford Bridge from Lyon in 2005.

The 37-year-old said prior to joining Chelsea almost 15 years ago, he had the chance to join Liverpool.

According to the former Ghanaian captain, he even went to Liverpool’s Melwood training ground to hold talks with then former Reds coach, Gerard Houllier.

“I had a lot of offers when I was at Bastia. I was close to signing for Liverpool when Gerard Houllier was their coach,” Daily Mail quoted Essien as saying.

“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, Olympique Marseille et al., but I told Bastia I did not want to move, and they also did not want to sell me at that time because they wanted me to stay for another year which was fine with me because I also did not want to leave the club.

“So I stayed for another season, that is my third year with the club.

“Lyon joined the three aforementioned clubs to enquire about me, but 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].

“Lyon was my favourite team when I went to France because they were winning everything. I told my agent that if Lyon has come into the picture, I would like to join them.”

Essien spent nine years at Chelsea before leaving in 2014 to join Serie A giant, AC Milan.