It is a modern player’s prerogative to change his mind. That has been one of the tricky things about completing football transfers. Club administrators usually keep their cards to their chest until all this done before the final reveal and this as Michael Essien revealed in is recent interview proves it quite evidently.
Essien in the interview revealed that he was very close to joining Liverpool back in 2002 – just a year after he had moved to play his football for French side, Bastia.
The midfielder at the time was one of the most promising players in Europe and had many suitors.
“In my second year, I had a lot of teams who were interested in me. I was close to signing for Liverpool when Gerrard Houllier was their manager,” Essien revealed in an Instagram Live interview with South African journalist, Carol Tshabalala.
Liverpool’s manager then, Gerrard Houllier, who as a Frenchman, was interested in players from the Ligue 1 and had identified Essien as a perfect candidate to bolster his midfield.
The Ghanaian midfielder confirmed meeting Liverpool’s manager at Melwood that year before opting to stay on at Bastia for another year.
“I even went to Liverpool to meet the coach and we had a talk. I came back to Bastia. All these clubs were coming in like PSG, Marseille but I said to Bastia that I did not want to move. They did not want to sell me at that time. They wanted me to stay for another year which was fine for me. I did not want to stress myself with that so I just let it go till I finished my third year.”
Essien joined Olympique Lyon in the summer of 2003 and became a cult hero at the Stade Gerland before moving to Chelsea two years later. He made 71 appearances for the club.
By Yaw Ofosu Larbi|3news.com|Ghana