'I could only eat rice and chicken'- Michael Essien opens up on settling down in France

Former Black Stars midfielder, Michael Essien has disclosed that his time at Bastia was the most difficult period in his football career due to nutrition reasons.

The combative midfielder joined French Ligue 1 side Bastia in 2002 from Liberty Professionals and went on to achieve greatness.

But according to him, the journey to the top has not been smooth having had a lot of difficulties settling down in France due to the language and his inability to eat any other food apart from rice and chicken.

“The hardest part was when I went to France, I couldn’t speak the language. So, for me, that would be the hardest part. And obviously, the only thing I could eat was rice and chicken”, he said on Nordsjaelland’s official YouTube channel.

“But that food side, it didn’t kind of bother me at all, but it was the language bit because once I’m on the pitch, I’m happy with my teammates, training, and playing.”

Essien, however, added that things got better when a French teacher was assigned to him.

“But then they have to find me a teacher who can teach me the language and so after every training session I’ll have like another two or three hours learning the language, the French language."

“And after six-seven months, I could practically understand everything, and then I started speaking French.”

Essien is currently working as a technical member of the FC Nordsjaelland in the Danish league.