Lyon fans miss Essien most
Ghana international Michael Essien will not be forgotten anytime soon by supporters of French Ligue 1 side Olympique Lyonnais after being voted as the "Most Missed Player" at Stade Gerland.
Lyon's quality players in the last eight seasons of being crowned Ligue 1 champions, have been transferred for megabucks to some many European clubs.
Renowned French football news portal, maxifoot, conducted a poll and asked: "Lyon fans, which former player do you miss most?"
Of the 14,040 fans who responded, Essien, currently riding on a crest wave at English Premier League side Chelsea polled 69.2% (9,710 votes).
It was a landslide win and was followed by Real Madrid's Mahamadou Diarra who polled 9.7% of the votes (1,366 votes).
Florent Malouda also at Chelsea came third (7.4%, 1037 votes) and Juventus' Tiago was fourth (7.1%, 999 votes).
Barcelona's French left-back Eric Abidal was last in the poll.
Essien played at Lyon for two seasons (2003-2005) where he won two French Ligue title and was voted the 2005 Player of the Year by France's National Union of Professional Footballers.