Roy Keane was his boyhood hero, Emmet Malonewrites, but Michael Essien will take no prisoners tonight
HE GREW up supporting Manchester United, so really it's no great surprise when Chelsea's powerful and hugely driven midfielder Michael Essien announces that Roy Keane was his childhood hero. The remarkable thing is that when the Ghanaian arrived, somewhat starstruck by the sight of the Corkman at Carrington, for a trial in his mid teens, Alex Ferguson simply couldn't tie down a deal both sides desperately wanted to happen.
Problems over a work permit were the primary reason the move fell through, with United proposing instead that the youngster sign and then go to their Belgian feeder club Royal Antwerp while they worked on a solution.
Essien's agent wasn't having it, and, when his mother agreed, Michael gave up on his dream, signing for Bastia in France instead and embarking on a journey that lead to him wearing the blue of Chelsea instead of red this evening but harbouring, he insists, no regrets.
"I've none at all," said the amiable but shy 25-year-old. "I wanted to come here and play in the Premiership and I was really happy when Chelsea came in for me. I'm really happy here and enjoying my football. I hope to stay here longer."
Whoever is in charge at Stamford Bridge next year, they are sure to be at least as anxious to see that the African does indeed hang around the place a while. The £24.4 million (€30m) Chelsea paid for him almost three years ago might have made Essien a gamble at the time, but the strength and enormous versatility displayed since have made the purchase look one of the club's tidier bits of business.
Having started out as a defender who could play anywhere across the back four, Essien moved into midfield at Bastia to fill a gap created by injury and never really looked back. He looks comfortable in virtually any central role, whether providing cover for the back four or lending support to the strikers.
The freedom he was afforded to combine both during two hugely successful seasons at Lyon probably helped the French champions to get the best out of him, but he remains, he insists, a selfless team player who doesn't mind at all the fact he will almost certainly start this evening's encounter at right back.
Essien grew up playing on the streets of Ghana's capital, Accra, an only son with four older sisters whose father had departed the family while the boy was an infant. The presence of the girls around the home meant he "didn't do anything at home. They did all the stuff for me. All I had to do was go out and play my football."
His mother, Aba, struggled to make ends meet baking and selling bread, but she was always supportive, and the sense of gratitude he feels towards her is clear to see. He laments the fact more visa problems have prevented her from travelling to watch the game in Moscow, although he's far from sure she would have anyway for she rarely looks at his games, even on television, and his decision to stop taking penalties a few seasons ago was prompted, he says, "because I missed one when I was in France and it sent my mum to hospital. When I missed it she was rushed there."
His first pair of proper boots were bought with money passers-by "tipped" him after street games, and after a spell with local outfit Liberty Professionals his performances at the Under-17 World Cup in 1999 brought offers from some big European clubs, including United.
In France, his relentless power and energy earned him the nickname "the Bison", but he laughs off the idea that he can keep going in particularly tough contests while all those around him fade. "It's my little secret," he says with a smile. "I do get tired but I don't show it."
If it's true, then he has certainly learned to hide his fatigue well. The last-minute goal he scored against Valencia last year to secure Chelsea's place in the semi-finals involved a tremendous burst of power and pace, and he was the team's outstanding performer over 120 minutes in the second leg of this season's last-four encounter with Liverpool a few weeks back.
In his three years in England he has shown he can run, tackle, pass and finish with the best of them, but former boss Jose Mourinho, with whom he still keeps in touch, says his great asset is his decision-making.
If there has been a widely held reservation about his game it concerns the occasional rashness of his challenges, but Essien maintains he had never received a straight red before arriving in England, and that the couple he has received since have been caused by misjudgments resulting from the greater speed of the game there.
Still, when asked about the stark contrast between his personality off and on the pitch, he admits, "I don't talk much, but on the pitch I am a different person. I forget about my shyness, everything, and just do my job. I think I have a mean streak. On the pitch sometimes I go crazy."
After a year in which he has already been on the losing side in the League Cup final at Wembley, been a part of the Ghanaian team beaten on home soil at the semi-final stage of the African Cup of Nations, and lost out to United on the last day of the Premier League campaign, he has better reason than most to be both tired and a little dispirited going into this evening's contest. He is adamant, however, that neither he nor his Chelsea team-mates are either.
"We have some more energy left and we will have to show that," he says. "It would be upsetting if we didn't win something this year because we have come a long way. So we want to win something. It was unfortunate to lose the title to Manchester United, but they did really well and I think they deserved to win it. But this club have never won the Champions League and we have known for a long time now that this is the trophy Chelsea really need."
