Ghana’s Michael Essien has been adjudged the Player of the Year of Chelsea for his outstanding performance during the English Premier League season.
Essien in his reaction after being declared the winner of the prestigious award as well as the scorer of the fans goal of the season for 2007 spoke of his astonishment at picking up two awards.
Essien becomes the first African to win Player of the Year award of Chelsea.
GNA Sports gathered from the official website of the Club that the 24-year-old Ghanaian was grateful to fans for voting him for such prestigious awards.
The other was Goal of the Season and he received them at a lavish ceremony at Battersea Evolution in London, attended by over 1000 of those fans and broadcast live on Chelsea TV.
Essien received a trophy from Chelsea Football Club's life vice-president Lord Attenborough.
“I am really surprised,” Essien admitted. He dropped his head on the table when he heard the result read out.
He noted: ”I am really happy for this though. I have to thank the fans and the credit goes to my team-mates. They have been fantastic this season.”
Though taken aback, he had a good idea why he has been so appreciated by the fans.
“I have had to fill in a lot of space, right-back, centre-half, and I did everything for the team. We are all happy for the season. I have enjoyed every moment of it. It has been really hard for us and I think we deserve credit.”
Essien himself certainly received more credit when the evening's presentation ceremony commenced with the supporters' vote on Goal of the Season. His 35-yard thunderbolt against Arsenal at Stamford Bridge in December topped the poll.
”I meant to do it,'” he confirmed. “I called to Frank [Lampard], he gave me the ball and the first thing that came into my mind was to shoot. They are one of our big rivals so to score a fantastic goal against them is nice. But I am surprised it won.”
