What a player Michael Essien was in his prime.

Not many players can say that they’ve played for top clubs in France (Lyon), England (Chelsea), Spain (Real Madrid) and Italy (Milan).

In the process, he won four league titles - two for Lyon and two for Chelsea - as well as the Champions League in 2012 for the Stamford Bridge club.

At the age of 35, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Essien has already hung up his boots after such an illustrious career.

However, that’s not quite the case.

In March 2017, Essien took his career to Indonesia, joining Persib Bandung on a one-year contract with an option to extend it by a further year.

But it seems he hasn’t done quite enough to earn that further year, despite scoring five goals in 29 matches for the club last season.

ESSIEN'S CAREER TAKES A TURN FOR THE WORSE

That’s because the Persib have now released the Ghanian after filling their maximum quota of foreign players with several signings.

Club chief executive Zainuri Hasyim said: "Essien was not among the players we launched for the new season, because we wanted to fulfil the PSSI [Indonesian FA] regulation of four foreign players in a team.”

So they signed too many foreign players and, subsequently, released Essien.

The poor guy is now on the lookout for a new club.

HE NEEDS A NEW CLUB - AND HE MAY HAVE FOUND IT

But don’t feel too sorry for him. That’s because it’s being reported that he might join Persib’s main rivals Bali United.

We can imagine Bali is a very nice to play football and end your career.

It's been a tough old year for Essien, though.

In January, a statue was unveiled in his native country that was supposed to resemble the superstar.

However, it will go down as arguably the worst statue of all time.

Ah well, he will spend the next 12 months enjoying his time in Bali. 

Who's the real winner here?