Michael Essien's father, James (76), who was apparently AWOL in his childhood and left his mother with the main responsibility of his upbringing and welfare has been in the media of recent accusing Essien of neglect. He granted interviews to British press where he said the money Essien sends him is not enough to live the life that the father of a world class footballer should live especially when he is ailing. Michael makes £12K a day (that is £90K p/week, £4.7m p/year)

He claims Essien provides far more for his mother.


[size=18pt]Background of Essien[/size]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/article3221832.ece

Essien? Well, it just remains for him to do it on the pitch. Again and again. Pressure? You would not know it, not yesterday, and certainly not if you fought through the dusty traffic to the Accra suburb of Dansomer. This is where Liberty Professionals, Essien’s former team, play and it is also where he built a house for his mother, Aba Gyanode. An hour away, the airport district is where you will find the big stars, the Tony Yeboahs and the Sammy Kuffours, their residences large, elaborate and questionable of taste.

But Aba is delighted with her palace — large, comparatively simple in stone-washed pink, in an area that does not suggest the Essiens have moved beyond their roots. Like in the rest of the city, large Ghana flags are draped from the walls and from the gate. Aba is also wearing a smaller version as a headscarf. “I am so proud of him,” she said. “I knew that he was a good player, but I never thought that he would get this far.” She carries in her handbag a small, private collection of dog-eared photographs: Michael standing proud next to his elder cousin, Michael, in an early football team, Michael aged 5 by a dirt road.

In those days they lived 20 miles out of the city and mostly in the absence of Essien’s father. He, too, was a footballer, but the parents split and Aba kept the family by baking and selling bread. “It was difficult,” she said, but they were not poor by African standards and even then Michael contributed by playing decent football.

In Ghana, bystanders watching amateur or junior football will hand their spare change sometimes to the players whose football they enjoyed, as if giving them a tip. “When Michael was young, they always gave him money,” Aba said. “It wasn’t much, but he always brought it home to me, he never spent it on sweets.”

She does indeed have a special relationship with him and it has survived the years and distance apart. “I was always very close to him,” she said. “I had four daughters, but he was my last child and my only boy. I soon came to realise there were two sides to him. He was a very quiet boy, but on the football pitch he was different, a rough boy. I came to realise that you had to be like that. He was good at volleyball and table tennis, too, but football was what he really wanted.”

[size=18pt]Fathers Claim[/size]

[size=14pt]Chelsea star Michael Essien's dad lives in poverty [/size]

http://www.naijarules.com/vb/sports-outdoor-life/27226-chelsea-star-michael-essiens-dad-lives-poverty.html

Chelsea star Michael Essien's dad lives in poverty
EXCLUSIVE: CHELSEA STAR ESSIEN'S DAD
Susie Boniface In Odoben, Ghana 27/01/2008

(What's this?)He drives a 4x4 Porsche, drinks £400 - a - bottle champagne and wears the finest designer clothes.

As one of Chelsea's biggest stars, earning a whopping £90,000 a week, footballer Michael Essien can afford to buy just about anything.

It's a bit different for his elderly father James, though. You don't get to splash out much when you are living on 50p a day.

Home for James, 76, is a tumbledown mud shack with a tatty tin roof in a tiny village in Ghana.

On a pension of just £15 a month he can't even afford to buy firewood to cook his food.

James - known as J.K. - has seen millionaire Michael only once in the last 10 years following a family rift.

But far from being bitter - or wanting a chunk of his superstar son's fortune - he says: "I just want him to let me be a real dad to him.

"I want to go to see his matches - and maybe if he could buy me a second-hand fridge, life would be more comfortable for me.

"Michael has done so well, I am very proud of him. He has raised the Essien name up high. When I wake up the first thing I do is pray for him, that he will excel in all his matches."

J.K. lives alone in the village of Odoben, an hour's drive from the town of Ewutu Bwajiase in Ghana where Michael was born.

In pride of place on the living room wall is his most treasured possession - a poster of Michael playing for Ghana's national team, the Black Stars. J.K. watches every match he can on his tiny eight-year-old TV which picks up a crackly signal from a makeshift aerial.

The family rift began when Michael's mother, Aba, divorced J.K. because he refused to give up his three other wives.

After the split she claimed he had refused to provide for Michael and his sister, Dinah.

J.K. says: "She was my fourth wife and we were married for eight years. But when Michael was two she wanted me not to see the others, and I said no.

"I knew I had responsibilities to him as a father and did what I could. But at that time I was a tool collector for the council earning about £3 a month, and I just could not afford to.

"I had to pay for my other wives and children too. It is right in the sense I did not pay as much as I should have, but I tried my best."

But he adds: "I saw Michael whenever I could, I got him a scholarship to a good school, and I took him to his try-outs for his first under-12s team."

J.K. realised his son had a special talent for the game before he took his first steps. He says: "I was a footballer too when I was young and played for local teams, but had to give it up because at that time there was no profit in it.

"And before Michael could walk he was playing with a ball. He would roll it around with his hand, he would go to bed with a football. Soon he was playing it all the time and I would have kick about with him.

"He was a very good boy, calm and humble. He never insulted anyone or was rude, he was happy and outgoing. All he was interested in was football. The few times he did misbehave I would say, 'If you don't calm down, you're not to play football today'. He would stop right away and do whatever I wanted, he was so desperate to play."

One day J.K. heard there were trials for an under-12s team in the capital, Accra. He spent a precious £6 on a return trip for him and his son, who made it through the final stages to win a place at a soccer academy where he stayed for a year.

Then he started high school on a paid-for scholarship granted after J.K., on a trip to see the headteacher about a place for his son, was in a car accident and laid off work for a year.

Michael graduated at 14, the school-leaving age in Ghana, and was immediately signed-up to the under-17s squad of local side Liberty Professionals. In 1999, aged 16, he was spotted by talent scouts playing in the youth version of the World Cup and signed up to French team SC Bastia.

J.K. says: "When he was with Liberty he lived in Accra and was training a lot, but he rang me regularly and came to visit in the school holidays.

"When he went to France he stayed in touch, and everything was good between us. He sent home money to help me through his mother.

"She would ring me and say she had some money, and I had to travel to her to get it. I would spend maybe £3 getting there and then she would give me £25 or sometimes £10.

"Sometimes if I had not been for six months or so she would give me £50. It was not really enough to help me. But I never complained to her or to Michael because it was not my place.

"I was a beggar, and had to be grateful. If things were tough and I was struggling to put food on the table I had to ring his mother and ask for help."

But as Michael's star rose the family rift escalated.

His sister Betty, 27, says: "Michael's mother wanted him to pay for her and her children.

"Michael tried to help his brothers and sisters a few years ago and gave us all £50 each, but it was never repeated.

"A few months ago my father was so upset he mixed a poison to drink so he could kill himself.

"It was only because a family friend turned up before he had drunk too much that he was saved. Michael has no idea how much we are suffering."

In 2005 Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich paid a record £24million to sign Michael, whose earnings shot up to £30,000 a week.

But J.K. says all payments to him stopped apart from the delivery, two years ago, of a £500 third-hand Mitsubishi Galant, which J.K. has been too poor to fill with petrol for the past 18 months.

Meanwhile, Michael had fallen in love with a Ghanaian-born woman called Dela, whom he met in France. He introduced her to his mother - but not his father.

As is traditional, the couple had a formal engagement agreed by both families, allowing them to live together.

Dela moved with him to London but the couple soon fell out. Last week Michael arrived back in Ghana to play for his country in the Africa Cup Of Nations, the equivalent of the European Championships.

J.K. scraped together the money to visit his ex-wife, and asked her to arrange a visit with Michael.

He says she refused, and he was turned away from the door.

He says: "It was the saddest day of my life. There is no way to describe it. Michael's mother lives in a lovely house with lots of luxuries and I have nothing - most importantly I do not even have my son.

"People come to see me here and laugh at me and say, 'Oh, you're Michael Essien's father, but you live like this'.

"They ridicule me, but I am still proud of him.

"I would like to be able to go to a match and see him play live. But the tickets are about £30, so I don't think I will manage it.

"But I hope in my heart the day will soon come when my son comes back to me - and corrects all the wrongs that have been done."

[size=18pt]Michael Essiens claims[/size]

[size=14pt]Essien Denies Ailing Dad’s Claims[/size]

http://dailyguideghana.com/newd/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9006&Itemid=262

Ghana midfielder Michael Essien has hit out at claims that he has neglected his ailing father describing the allegations as ‘false, vile and degrading’.

His father James told a local newspaper and radio station recently that the Chelsea star does not provide for him, an accusation the midfielder says is calculated to ‘destroy me in the eyes of the people of Ghana and disgrace my family.’

Despite the claims of his father who is a former player with local giants Hearts of Oak, Essien insists he built a house, bought a car, provides medical care and money to his dad even though the man neglected him as a child.

“Given what I have done for my father, when I was told of the false, vile and degrading comments he made about me, I wept because people normally do not get insults for doing good,” said the Chelsea star in a press statement on Monday.

“But my father decided to pay me back in such a terrible way. Because of this I have been unfortunately forced to say what I have done for him because he has gone to the extreme to disgrace my family. I will like to state the following facts:

“1. My father currently lives in a three-bedroom house I instructed my sister to build for him with my own money.

“2. He is visited monthly and more recently twice a week by my sister Diana on my orders to regularly give him money and other essentials I send. My mother, whom he has insulted so much, also provides for him.

“3. I bought a car for him to make his transportation easier and part of the money I provide for him is used to fuel the car or repair it when it breaks down.

“4. When his illness broke out I asked for him to be taken to the Asikuma Hospital but he said he wants traditional medicine. I provided money for him to undergo traditional treatment.

It came to nothing and I ordered for him to be taken to the hospital. My family I believe have also organised for a nurse to come home and look after him on regular bases.”

Despite the anger generated by his father’s allegation the Black Stars midfielder says he will continue to offer support to his dad.

“I want to state here categorically that even after such distasteful comments; I will continue to support my father as I believe it is the right thing to do,” Essien said.

This is not the first time such an allegation has been made by James K. Essien as he made similar claims to the English newspaper the Sunday Mirror in January 2008.

The Press Complaints Commission ruled in favour of Essien which resulted in a grovelling apology from the newspaper.

this man is an idiot, idiot-o, shameless hussy, Michael is being generous and very polite by even acknowledging him, I mean really. John Terry's dad sells pot for goodness sake, why can't he, instead of expecting his son to do what he couldn't do,

so, of the four wives and how many children, michael is the only one who has some money?


very bad case for polygamy.


anyway, michael should give his dad more, since he has the money, just so his dad doesnt keep disgracing him with these stories. Let bygones be bygones even if he has the kind of family where everyone is out to destroy each other. His mum should also pity the guy [her ex-husband] and help michael out by sharing some of her wealth with him maybe. If only to stop the stories and not even necessarily for pity. She should have a third party give him something every month and say its from michael.

the story said micheal's mum wanted the dad to divorce the other 3 wives and make her the only wife?

nothing without a reason i'm sure.

complicated case.

but essien shouldnt allow his relatives and family to jinx him oh.

just watching this

he neglected him as a child,leaving him in the hands of his mother.now,because he has made it,he remembers he's his father this should serve as a big lesson to fathers.

The Old Man is simply greedy, I think he was push to make this public comment from his other children, , why must he go public?

JK should be glad that Essien is helping him a bit. Mario Ballotelli abandoned his Ghananian parents completely. He is mad that they gave him up for adoption to an Italian family when he was small. Now that he is rich, they want something from him and he said a capital NO.

Lmao. . . . .Mario the stupid boy

He is like most shameless black men with a sense of self entitlement. They want to keep producing kids but don't want to be responsible for their upbringing and if one of the kids happens to get successful, they start grumbling shameslessly. Not the first, neither will he be the last. most black celebrities are victims of child abandonement, not to talk of millions of other regular kids, especially black kids and this is one of the biggest reason why millions of young black men find it difficult to be as successful as other kids from other races and why so many young women end up selling their bodies, all to find a way for their families to survive.
Blacks in general have long way to go in every aspect, when parents wants to reap where they did not sow. Affects generation upon generation

From the story i dont think the father left Michael unprovided for. He saw him through till he entered u-17 team even out of nothing. Haba! I dont think the father should be treated that way. Michael is not doing well in that area and his mum is not helping matter at all.

The father seems like an unrepentant person. You claim you only had a petty job but you went on to marry 4 women and kept reproducing. I wish the man well but he needs not bite the hand that feeds him because it seems that in this deal he(the father) did not keep his end of the bargain

Now that the old man gone public let the public take care of him. He should have done his duties as a father, that is the problem with black, poor or no old age plan. Why put your old age problem on your child

[size=18pt]Father's Claim after Essien's Claim[/size]

[size=14pt]Essien Vs Dad: Shocking Pictures Pop Out, Who is Lying?[/size]

http://santiagopad..com/2010/05/essien-vs-dad-shocking-pictures-pop-out.html

Question: You seem to be destroying your son with this claim that he has neglected you.
James Essien: “It is not true I am out to destroy Michael, at least I am proud he has sent my name to the international levels and if I played football for Gold Coast and my son is playing for Ghana, what can I say but to be proud of him but truth must also be said that Essien is not looking after me as he is making the world to believe”

Question: Why is he not looking after you as you are alleging
James Essien: I believe it is because he grew up with the mother, Aba, so he is closer to her and takes care of her but I am an old man and I cannot tell lies against my own son, Michael does not care about me. I have not seen him for the past 15 years and I have not spoken to him for the past six years because I do not even have his number, let alone contact him and his mother has refused to give me the number; the sister, Diana also says she does not have the number”

Question: But you know where to contact him when he is in Ghana.
James Essien: No I do not. There was this time I heard he was in Ghana and would be training at the stadium so I dressed in my best cloths and travelled all the way to Accra…After the training I went to the dressing room but when my son saw me, he bent his head as if he was lacing his boots and remained there for over 15 minutes so I went to him and raised his head.
Michael asked me who brought me to the stadium and it came to me as a surprise and I told him I was playing football at the stadium before he was born….When he got ready to leave I followed him to his car and reminded him that I came to see him for a discussion but he insisted he was busy.
I then asked for transportation back home but he did not give me and asked me to meet him at Novotel the next Monday. I managed to perch with friends in Accra and finally got to Novotel on Monday only to be told Michael Essien left the country Friday night soon after my meeting with him

Question: Could it be he was hurt because you neglected him as a child?
James Essien: Ha ha ha ha. I did not neglect Michael. When the mother and I broke up, he was about two years so all the children stayed with her but they always came to me during festivals and some holidays, it was after he got to France that I stopped hearing from him and had never had his number.
I looked after him and I was the one who even sent him to Sewedro Secondary school after his JSS. On that day I even had an accident and this is a story many people in Sewedro still remember. From there he had a scholarship to St. Augustine.
I must confess I was not sending him money when he was in school but it was not deliberate because I was not having money at the time… I did my best to look after him but as a revenue collector what could I have done. I took him to secondary school, when he had the Liberty opportunity I played a major role. You ask Alhaji Sly Tetteh.

Question: What about the three-bed room house he built for you?
James Essien: This is where I live; a mud house built by my brother many years ago even before Michael was born. It is the room in which I stay that he renovated and added a hall. He has never built me a house. I do not believe he wrote that statement himself.

Question: He claims he sends you money for your up-keep and car maintenance.
James Essien: Yes once in a while he sends me GH¢500 (about $400) but the money is not regular and at times has about six months interval. As for the car, it is still at the workshop because there is no money to repair it. I am the third person to own that car and it is not as new as you think.

Question: Is it true he pays for your medical bills and sent you to the Asikuma Hospital?
James Essein: If Michael Essien says he sent me to Assikuma Hospital, it is a big lie; it is a traditional medicine man that comes here to take care of me.

Question: If you had a message for your son, what would it be?
James Essien: Oh I want to see him. We should live as father and son. It is not that I am interested in burdening him with my problems. I was taking care of myself before Michael was born and since then I still take care of myself; look I was born on 28th September 1932 so I not a small boy and there is very little I still expect from this life. But Michael is my son, my blood, the one that makes me proud all over the world and I must at least be made to feel like a father but not a stranger to him. I would want him to know I still love him as my child and follow his career and all his games. In fact there are things I want to tell him as a father, things I want to tell him in person.

Question: Thank you for the opportunity.
James Essien: Thank you and tell those who do not believe what I am saying to come here to see things for themselves.

Here we go again. So by his own admission he has not seen his son since the boy was 12. He has just admitted that he is a dead beat dad.

^^^The bobo they lie about im age sha. Add another 5 to 8 years to that.

Pix of living quarters on link:

http://santiagopad..com/2010/05/essien-vs-dad-shocking-pictures-pop-out.html

The dude should go get a life.Run away father wanting 2 enjoy when he wasnt part of d lad's life growing up.

From the article:

Though he admitted that Michael Essien had bought him a car, Mr. Essien said the car is an old one which had been used previously by two people.

JK, you don't have money and you are complaining that a free car given to you is used. Don't blame Essien. Maybe he sent enough money for a new car and Aba divided it among her other children and used what was left for that Gallant.

Essien, please arrange to have JK given $100 every month. Even if you don't talk to him, he will be happy. This is bad publicity.

having read all three articles i am convinced that michael essien is in the wrong. my dad always would tell us that he should he judged as a father not based on what he did provide for us but on how much he could do that he did do. if you look at the story objectively, michael ought to do more for his father. i mean you say the man did not send him money bla bla bla, the fact of life is that there are poor people out there who simply dont have the money to do nice things for their children. there are people who simply cannot afford to set their children off in life. this man did the little he could. he got his son into school and he set him off in his football career. the boy was not living on the streets, he was living a reasonable life, according to the first article, above african poverty standards(whatever that is). perhaps the man did wrong by biting more than he could chew by marrying too many wives but this is something common to Africa's poor. a total lack of foresight and planning. you will observe that it is the poorest people that have the most kids. michael may God help you to do right. even if he does not consider it to be doing right by his father, let him consider it to be charity, he can send better than 25-50 pounds to his dad.

Kgdavid:

having read all three articles i am convinced that michael essien is in the wrong. my dad always would tell us that he should he judged as a father not based on what he did provide for us  but on how much he could do that he did do. if you look at the story objectively, michael ought to do more for his father. i mean you say the man did not send him money bla bla bla, the fact of life is that there are poor people out there who simply dont have the money to do nice things for their children. there are people who simply cannot afford to set their children off in life. this man did the little he could. he got his son into school and he set him off in his football career. the boy was not living on the streets, he was living a reasonable life, according to the first article, above african poverty standards(whatever that is). perhaps the man did wrong by biting more than he could chew by marrying too many wives but this is something common to Africa's poor. a total lack of foresight and planning. you will observe that it is the poorest people that have the most kids. michael may God help you to do right. even if he does not consider it to be doing right by his father, let him consider it to be charity, he can send better than 25-50 pounds to his dad.

He could not afford to provide basic things because he decided to marry FOUR wives. We know Essien's mother had 5 kids, so it might be about safe to assume the others have on average 3 and probably minimum 2 each.

So the man knows he does not have money but brought (probably) 11+ kids into the world to SUFFER!

Upon all, he was only transiently in their lives (at least for Essien), so apart from not providing financially, he was also quite deficient emotionally.

And now he wants to be "treated like a father". Anuofia to him!

He has enjoyed the "sweet hole" irresponsibly whilst his kids suffer, now is the time to suffer the pain and the kids enjoy.

The worst thing is when you read some Ghanian websites, some come up with excuse he deserves more because "he is the father and culture dictates you take care of father" or the more ediotic "It is his father, a former footballer, that gave him the gene to be good".

I feel like B*tch slapping them.

shame on you Essien,this is your father 4 Godsake,
bros money is not everything in life  

That man is stupid going PUBlic, Give more and expect greater vice versa

not to mention why is the media involved in all this?

Useless, shameless father, when his son was a nobody where was he? When the mother was struggling with Michael and his siblings where was he? At last the child is famous he is my son, if he was in prison no one will recognize him as the father. As far as he is looking after the mother who took care of him, the father has nothing to say.

There we go again people washing their dirty linen in public because of money!

Kenny_G:

I then asked for transportation back home but he did not give me and asked me to meet him at Novotel the next Monday. I managed to perch with friends in Accra and finally got to Novotel on Monday only to be told Michael Essien left the country Friday night soon after my meeting with him

ROFLMAO old man don fall maga.

Rubbish me I will not send a dime!

@ sagamite i will agree with you when you say he was irresponsible sexually but that is the only crime i can see. i mean financially he did what he could which urned out to be little but morally he ensured that essien had an education and gave him the platform from which he built his career and emotionally you have to remember that it was Essiens mother who made the decision to cut off the father. if you read this and many other stories about Essien you begin to see another side of his character. if he could lie about building the man a house then all may not be what it seems. its like saying a man has 10 k and 10 kids so he gives each child 1 k. will one of the children turn around and insult the man because he had ten kids instead of having only 1 so that he could have the entire 10 k to himself?

I agree the man did not do much for Essien while growing up

But I dont think he should neglect him especially when he can afford to make life better for him

Even relatives who never contributed a dime to our growing up do enjoy some mercies when we become successful.

He is still his father and he deserves some mercies. I felt sad seeing the condition/environment Essien's father lives in.

cant the other children organize themselves and build their dad a proper house?

why is everybody waiting for michael before they lift a finger to help their father?

the man should stop calling the whole world into this private family matter btw.