Chelsea icon Michael Essien's move to Real Madrid in 2012 happened in a flash
In football, life comes at you fast.
Few players understand that better than Michael Essien, whose loan move from Chelsea to Real Madrid back in 2012 was, from start to finish, sorted in a matter of hours. The Ghanaian, who played over 250 times for the Blues, was a vital cog in the ruthless, trophy-hoovering machine that was the early Roman Abramovich era at Stamford Bridge.
Nicknamed 'The Bison', Essien blended power and athleticism to form an invaluable part of one of the most dominant midfields in Premier League history alongside the likes of Frank Lampard, Claude Makelele and Michael Ballack. But as the years ticked by, injuries began building up, and Essien's importance to Chelsea started to wane.
So when he was offered the chance not only to play for arguably the world's most famous club, but also to work under former boss Jose Mourinho again, Essien, rather unsurprisingly, jumped at it. In fact, he almost had to jump off the team bus after receiving a call from 'The Special One' on deadline day.
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"A strange number called me but I didn't want to answer it," Essien, who turned 42 on Tuesday, told GhanaWeb back in 2020. "But my cousin, who was in the room with me that day, told me to pick it up.
"The number kept calling so I picked and, as soon as I said hello and another hello came from the other end, I realised who was on the phone. I told my cousin it's Jose Mourinho."
The Portuguese coach explained that Madrid were negotiating a loan deal for him, forcing Essien into a drastic change of plans. Chelsea were about to face Atletico Madrid in the UEFA Super Cup, and just as the bus was leaving the hotel to drive to the squad to the stadium, Essien's agent rang him telling him to get off.
Essien spent the 2012/13 season on loan from Chelsea at Real Madrid
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"I had to shout at the bus driver to stop like some mad man," he explained. "All my team-mates were looking at me like: 'Michael what's going on?' The bus stopped and I went back to the hotel to wait for my agent. My agent came and sent the fax and thankfully everything got finalised on time."
Essien had little time to grab his personal effects before being hastily whisked away to the airport, and less than 24 hours later he was slipping on a Los Blancos training top. "I went to Madrid with just my boots, shin pads, one [pair of] jeans, one shirt and my Chelsea tracksuit," he remembered.
"I got to the airport [and] Jose was there waiting for me. He greeted me and I went to the hospital to undergo my medical. The next day, I started training."
In his sole season at the Bernabeu, Essien enjoyed something of a mini career renaissance, making 35 appearances for the team in all competitions, having managed just 10 league starts for Chelsea in the previous campaign. He returned to west London at the end of the season, as did Mourinho, who agreed to a second stint as Blues boss after leaving Madrid by mutual consent a couple of weeks prior.
Mourinho affectionately referred to Essien as his "son", having managed the midfielder on three separate occasions
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But their second reunion in as many years wasn't nearly as fruitful as the first, with Essien playing just nine more times for Chelsea before leaving the club permanently for AC Milan in 2014. Across his eight seasons at Stamford Bridge, Essien scored 25 goals - including memorable stunners against Arsenal and Barcelona - and lifted eight major trophies, the most notable of which being two Premier League titles and the Champions League.
He retired in 2020 following a stint at Azerbaijanian outfit Sabail. A few months later was named assistant manager of Danish club Nordsjælland, who have a partnership with the Right to Dream Academy in Essien's native Ghana, though only lasted a few months in the job.
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