Michael Essien
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Michael Essien's performances for Lyon in 2005 were impressive enough to earn him both a nomination for the World Player of the Year award and a £24.4m move to Chelsea, making him the most expensive African player in history at the time.
It proved to be a big sum well spent by Chelsea, though, as Essien gave them nine years of service in which he helped them to eight major honours.
The Blues won the Premier League title in his debut campaign, and a year later he was named the club's Player of the Year having scored six goals in 55 appearances as Chelsea clinched a League Cup and FA Cup double.
Essien went on to win the FA Cup four times during his stay at Stamford Bridge, one of which was part of another double as the Ghanaian lifted the Premier League trophy for a second time.
Injury meant Essien missed a large chunk of the 2011-12 campaign, but he still picked up a Champions League winners' medal at the end of the season before rejoining Jose Mourinho at Real Madrid that summer.
In all, Essien scored 25 goals in 256 appearances for Chelsea, 17 of which came in 168 Premier League outings.
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Barney Corkhill
