During the Game4Ukraine Charity match played at Stamford Bridge on Saturday, August 5, 2023, Chelsea icon Michael Essien reconnected with ex-teammates Samuel Eto'o and Claude Makelele.
The group participated in the match that Arsenal's Oleksandr Zinchenko and former Ukrainian coach Andriy Shevchenko staged to mobilize funds for war victims in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.
Essien was seen grinning broadly in a picture taken in the Chelsea locker room between Eto'o and Makelele.
Before Makelele left to join Paris Saint-Germain in 2009, Essien played alongside him for three years, from 2005 to 2008.
In the 2013–2014 campaign, Eto also signed for Chelsea. He spent a year playing for the London club with Essien, who moved midway through the campaign to join AC Milan on loan.
At the moment, Makelele is a technical consultant at Chelsea, while former Black Stars midfielder, Essien works as a coach for the Danish team FC Nordsjaelland. Eto is the president of the Cameroonian Football Federation.