Michael Essien stage and was out of action for six months, missing the majority of the 2008–09 season, before returning on 4 March to play for Chelsea Reserves against Aston Villa Reserves. He scored the last goal in the 4–3 loss. He still managed to take part in 10 of Ghana's 11 qualification matches, amassing more than 800 minutes of game time as Ghana finished at the top of their group to seal qualification to the 2010 World Cup. However, it was announced on 27 May 2010 that Essien would miss the World Cup after he was told he would not fully
Mark Essien Mark Essien Mark Essien (born December 18, 1980 in Ikot Ekpene, Akwa Ibom State) is a Nigerian entrepreneur, software developer and startup investor. He is the founder and CEO of Hotels.ng, one of the first and most successful online hotel booking websites in Nigeria. Before founding Hotels.ng, Mark Essien had previously built a file sharing software called Gnumm (acquired by Snoopstar.com), followed by a language learning startup called Ingolingo. In 2013, he founded Hotels.ng. Spark.ng made an initial investment of $75,000 and another investment of $150,000. In 2015, the company secured additional investment funding of $1.2m from international investors EchoVC