Michael Essien Rovers and Fulham, the latter a match in which he scored the only goal and received a red card. However, Essien would again incur an injury and missed two months of the season, during which Chelsea won just one out of nine matches. He returned to score in the penalty shoot-out loss in the FA Cup against Everton but ultimately had a poor second half of the season. After Chelsea's final match, the Ghana Football Association announced Essien had returned to the international squad. In pre-season training for the 2011–12 Premier League season, Essien ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament and
Mark Essien Pan-Africa Fund, a seed-stage technology fund, and Omidyar Network, the investment vehicle of eBay founder Pierre Omidyar. In 2015 Mark made the Forbes list of 30 youngest entrepreneurs in Africa. He has also been nominated for the Nigeria Future awards amongst others. On April 8 2018, Essien married Jenni Naiaretti, who is also a developer. In 2016, Hotels.ng co-invested with Jason Njoku and Spark in OgaVenue, an events booking platform. Mark Essien serves as a director on the board of OgaVenue. Mark is a frequent TedX speaker. He has delivered talks on Leveraging networks to build a business, and how