Chelsea and Ghana legend Michael Essien named coach of Danish side Nordsjaelland
Ghana and Chelsea legend Michael Essien has been named coach assistant coach of Danish top-flight side Nordsjaelland, Sahara Football can confirm.
The 37-year-old has been appointed as a Player-Coach of the ambitious club based in the town of Farum and has several Ghanaian players in its ranks.
The former Chelsea superstar, who visited the club last month on a special invitation of the club President Tom Veron, has now agreed to join the coaching staff of the club.
Essien, who is currently taking the final stages of acquiring his coaching badges with the English FA, has now agreed a contract to be one of the assistant coaches of the club.
He will join the staff in an assistant role and participate in the training alongside the players to help implement the drills and ideas in the best possible way.
The former Real Madrid and Lyon midfielder will also contribute with new input to coaching group evaluations of the training session afterward.
“In the coaching staff we’ve experienced Michael Essien as both curious and hungry for knowledge before and after the training sessions, but at the same time also contributing and giving among the players during the training,” Nordsjaelland head coach Flemming Pedersen said.
“His career and experience speak for themselves, but when you add his humble and giving personality, this is an exceptional opportunity for us to get a person added to the staff who can help make our environment, even more, developing for our players and also add valuable input to the coaching team and be our hand on the training pitch.
“We are very much looking forward to welcoming Michael to FCN.”
Essien visited FC Nordsjælland club base in the town of Farum a couple of weeks ago for a week as inspiration for his ongoing coaching education.
Here he got the opportunity to be part of the work around the Superliga team and several of the club’s academy teams, just to get a better knowledge of the teaching and development of young people off the field at Nordsjaelland.
Now Essien will contribute himself, as he has agreed to become part of the club’s coaching team under Head Coach Flemming Pedersen in the coming season with the title Player-Coach.
Essien will thus be part of the coaching team in an assistant role at the same time as he can and will participate in the training sessions to implement the exercises in the best possible way and be able to contribute new input to the coaching team’s evaluations. He will have his first working day in Farum on 10 September.
culled from Ghanasoccernet
