Didier Drogba
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Didier Yves Drogba Tébily (born March 11, 1978 in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire) is footballer from Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) who currently plays for Chelsea F.C.
Early years
Born in Abidjan on 11 March 1978, Didier Drogba spent his childhood in his native Ivory Coast and his adopted country, France. ‘Tito’, as he was known to friends and family, first left the country of his birth at the age of five. He headed for Brest in Brittany, where his uncle, Michel Goba, was a professional footballer. Didier spent three years there with his uncle, living in Brest, Angoulême and Dunkerque, before returning home.
Following a downturn in economic conditions, he returned to live with his uncle in Dunkerque, though he continued to move around France as a youngster. It was at this time that he began to play football. In 1991 his parents also travelled to France, moving to Vannes and at the age of fifteen Didier signed for Levallois. At the time he was living with his cousin, Olivier Tebily, who now plays for Birmingham City. Drogba rose through the ranks at Levallois, playing for them in Ligue 2 aged 18.
Early Career
Drogba signed for Le Mans in 1998 (aged 19), who were at the time also in Ligue 2. After achieving a professional contract, he had a respectable first season, scoring seven goals. His next two seasons were dogged by injury, though his potential was clearly noted by Guingamp, who signed him in 2002, taking him up to Ligue 1 aged 24.
Didier spent one and a half seasons at Guingamp, scoring in his first game and repaying the manager's (Guy Lacombe) faith in him. In his only full season with the club, Didier scored seventenn goals and helped Gunigamp finish seventh, a record high for them. This led to hims signing for Olympique de Marseille, one of France's biggest clubs.
Olympique de Marseille
Marseiiler initially struggles, with Alain Perrin, who signed Didier from Guingamp, being sacked for his poor record, being replaced by José Anigo. Didier was unperturbed and his performances improved, scoring 18 goals and winning the award for French player of the year. He also collected a UEFA Cup runner's up medal, Marseille losing to Valencia in the final. Agian he attracted attention from bigger clubs, and at the end of this season he move to Chelsea as the club's record signing for £24 millon.
Chelsea
Signing for Chelsea in in July 2004, Didier adapted well to the FA Premier League, scoring in his third game for the club with a thunderous header against Crystal Palace. His season was interrupted when he pulled a stomach muscle against Liverpool, which kept him out of action for over two months. Despite this he enjoyed the second best goals-to-minutes ratio in the Premier League, prolific Frenchman Thierry Henry being the only player to better him in this respect. He scored 16 goals in 40 games for Chelsea in his first season, but was criticized for being inconsistent.
The season proved very successful for Chelsea as they won the Premiership and the Carling Cup, with Drogba scoring in extra time in a 3-2 final win against Liverpool at the Millennium Stadium. He played an important part in his team's run to the semi-finals of the Champions League, where he scored a brace against ex-club Marseille's arch-rivals Paris Saint-Germain and another two goals in both legs of the quarter-final against Bayern Munich.
He made an impressive start to the 2005/6 season, scoring two goals in a Community Shield win over Arsenal and putting in a man-of-the-match performance in a 4-1 win against Liverpool at Anfield, where he had a part in creating every goal. Departed to the African Cup of Nations and his presence was missed by Chelsea. Since returning the big Ivorian has hit the target 3 times and has had a further 2 ruled out.
Drogba has been hit by accusations of cheating, culminating in Chelsea's 2-0 win over Manchester City, during the 2005/06 season. He appeared to control the ball with his hand, before scoring the second of his two goals. In a post match interview with the BBC, he seemingly admitted to cheating, before retracting his comment.[1]
International
Drogba is a Côte d'Ivoire international and helped the team qualify for its first ever World Cup Finals, to be held in Germany in 2006. In February 2005 he was voted runner-up to Samuel Eto'o in the African Footballer of the Year awards.
In February 2006, Drogba captained Côte d'Ivoire to their second African Cup of Nations final, scoring the only goal in their semi-final match with Nigeria and putting away the deciding spot-kick in their record-equalling 12-11 penalty shootout quarter-final win over Cameroon. However, they lost in the final to Egypt 4-2 on penalties after a 0-0 draw, with Drogba missing a penalty in the shoot-out.
External links
- Drogba's official site - available in English and French
- Profile on Chelsea's official site
- BBC profile
- FootballDatabase profile