My Favorite Player || By @rhyda || 15% of This post goes to @steem.sports

15% of post payout goes to @steem.sports

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Big thanks goes to @steem.sports for giving us such a great opportunity to share with you guys about my favorite African footballer

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Edited using Canva

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As a kid, I always had a great passion for football and when ever it came to the national side, there was always one player i really admired the most. people called him the Bull dozer because of the way he played he was really one of the great African midfielders I know and he is in the person of Michael Kojo Essien.

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He Inspired me the most and today I'm glade to share with you guys some brief history about him.

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Michael Essien is a former black star player who played for Ghana and is known to be one of the toughest midfielders in Africa.
He became popular when he started playing for the Chelsea club team, where he spent 7 years with the team.
Born on the 3rd of December 1982, in a place called Aba Gyandoh in the greater Accra region. Essien grew up in Awutu Breku, a small village in the central part of Ghana where his passion for football started growing.

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When Essien was 2 years old, his parents separated and his mother cared for him and his siblings.
At the age of 15, Michael Essien won a football scholarship in secondary school at Saint Augustine College in cape coast Ghana.
He played in liberty professionals a local football club in Ghana.
Essien's first success was when he played in 1999 under 17 World Cup championship in New Zealand where he got the attention of the international football club teams.

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Michael Essien in Liberty professional Jeasery on the left

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Michael Essien has played for many different clubs such as Bastia, Olympic Lyon, Chelsea where he got the name The Bull, Real Madrid, Panathinaikos, Persb Bandurgs, and Fk Sabal.
Essien's dad was also a footballer who place for the Gold Coast (Ghana), His senior brother too was also a footballer before Essien but later died in an accident.

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Michael Essien in Bastia Jeasery

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Essien played in the under 17 1999 FIFA World Cup and also played in the FIFA youth championship. He played his first debut match at the Senior team in the 2002 African cup of nations and performed marvelously in the 2006 World Cup.

Essien led the black stars of Ghana to 3rd place at the 2008 African cup of nations.
He later on sustained a severe injury during the early stage of the 2010 cup of nation which made him not perform significantly to Ghana’s second-place finish in the competition.

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Under 20 world cup

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Essien left the National team for 3 years to focus on his club career and then later on returned in 2013 to assist the team to qualify for the 2014 World Cup where he only played one game out of 3.

Essien first made his first club team appearance at Bastia a division 1 team on the 30th of September 2000. He played in the midfield where he performed well. Essien formed a midfield partnership with Nicolas Dieuze and Cyril Jeunechamp. On the 12 of January 2002, Michael Essien scored an equalizing goal against Marseille.

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In 2005, Essien sign of the English club team Chelsea and at that time he was considered to be the most expensive African player in history with a transfer fee of £24.4 million.
He scored his first goal for the club team on the 11th of March 2006 against Tottenham in a 2-1 victory for Chelsea. He scored his second goal on the 17 of April 2006 against Everton. Essien was nominated for the 2006 FIFA world player award where he had 22nd position. A week after, he was nominated for the 2006 bar Lon dor. He has also been voted the 3rd best African player in the year 2006.

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Essien at chelsea

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He is considered to be my favorite player because he is tough and has the qualities of a good midfielder.
I will like to use this opportunity to invite @desiigner, @abdulkahargunu and @zzzinnn to come share with us their favorite African Footballer.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME