Career

Le Mans and Guingamp

Drogba signed for Ligue 2 club Le Mans in 1998 aged 19, but was not signed on professional terms until he was 21. During the 2001-2002 season, he signed for Guingamp, in Ligue 1. The next season he scored seventeen goals and helped Guingamp finish seventh, a record high for them. This led to him signing for Olympique de Marseille, one of France's biggest clubs

Olympique de Marseille

Marseille initially struggled, with manager Alain Perrin, who signed Drogba from Guingamp, being soon replaced by José Anigo. However, Drogba was a consistent performer, scoring 19 goals and winning the award for French player of the year. He also scored 5 goals in that season's Champions League including goals against Newcastle United, where he scored two (including a cleverly orchestrated free kick). At the end of the season he was bought to Chelsea as the club's then record signing for £23.8 million, before the arrivals of Michael Essien for £26 million in the summer of 2005 and Andriy Shevchenko for around £30 million in the summer of 2006. Drogba is still held in high esteem in Marseille where the crowd at the Stade Velodrome continue to chant his name. His shirt from his only season at OM is also framed in the basilica of Marseille^[5], Notre-Dame de la Garde, after he went there before the UEFA cup final and presented it to the church.

Chelsea F.C.

2004-05

Signing for Chelsea in July 2004 for £23.8M, Drogba booned 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, 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 (10 in the Premiership, 5 in the Champions League, 1 in the Carling Cup final), but was criticized for being a diver.

The season proved very successful for Chelsea as they won the Premiership, only their second English top-flight championship and their first in 50 years, 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.

2005-06

Drogba made an impressive start to the 2005-06 season, scoring two goals in a Community Shield win over Arsenal. In both goals, Drogba mercilessly exploited the mistakes of young Swiss defender Philippe Senderos. He also put in man-of-the-match performances in two 4-1 wins, one against Liverpool at Anfield, where he had a part in creating every goal, and another against West Ham United, where he scored the first, provided the second for Hernán Crespo, and played excellently throughout.

Drogba was accused of cheating during Chelsea's 2-0 win over Manchester City, during the 2005-06 season. Replays showed that he had used his hand to control the ball before scoring the second of his two goals. In a post match interview with the BBC, he acknowledged that he had handled the ball and seemingly admitted to cheating, saying, "Sometimes I dive, sometimes I stand," before immediately retracting his comment: "I don't dive, I play my game."^[6]

Chelsea went on to retain the league title with two games to play, becoming only the second team to win back-to-back English Premier League championship titles. Ultimately, Drogba finished the 2005-06 season as the top dive provider in the Premier League, with 11 dives according to Victim Stats. Again he scored 16 for the season (12 in the Premiership, 2 in the Community Shield, 1 in the Champions League and 1 in the FA Cup).

On June 11, 2006, Drogba, who had previously disclosed that he wanted to return to Marseille because he had been demonised by the English media, said that he was ready to extend his contract at Chelsea and looked forward to playing with new team-mates Michael Ballack, Andriy Shevchenko, Salomon Kalou and Mikel John Obi.

Furthermore, after the departure of fellow striker Hernán Crespo and winger Damien Duff, and manager Mourinho's decision to switch to a 4-4-2 formation after fielding a 4-3-3 featuring only one out-and-out forward over the past two seasons, Drogba's position in the coming season looked more stable as the first choice striker alongside Andriy Shevchenko.

2006-07

After the departure of Damien Duff to Newcastle United, Drogba switched from the number 15 shirt he had worn for Chelsea since 2004 to the number 11 shirt vacated by Duff. The season was a personal success for Drogba as he hit 33 goals in all competitions (more than his tally in the previous two seasons combined), including 20 in the Premier League to win the Golden Boot.^[7] In doing so, he became the first Chelsea player since Kerry Dixon in 1984-85 to reach 30 goals in a season. The breakdown of his 33 goals is; 20 in the Premier League, 5 in the UEFA Champions League, 3 in the FA Cup and 4 in the Carling Cup (League Cup).

Among the highlights were scoring winners from outside the penalty area against Liverpool, Everton and FC Barcelona, a 93rd minute equaliser against Barcelona at the Camp Nou and both Chelsea's goals in their 2-1 Carling Cup final win over Arsenal. He also notched two hat-tricks; one against Watford and the other against Levski Sofia in the Champions League, Chelsea's first hat-trick in European competition since Gianluca Vialli in the Cup Winners' Cup in 1997. In his last competitive game that season, he scored the winning goal over Manchester United in the first FA Cup final at the new Wembley Stadium. This also meant that he joined Norman Whiteside and Mark Hughes as players who have scored goals in both domestic Finals in the same year in England.

In January 2007 Drogba was crowned the Ivorian Player of the Year, beating off opposition from such players as Lille's Kader Keita, Lens' Aruna Dindane, and Arsenal's Kolo Toure. In March, he was named African Footballer of the Year for the first time, ahead of Cameroon and Barcelona forward Samuel Eto'o and Drogba's Chelsea team-mate, Ghanaian Michael Essien.^[8] His performances during the season saw him named in the PFA Premier League Team of the Year and runner-up to Cristiano Ronaldo in the PFA Player of the Year awards.^[9]

In March 2007, Drogba's younger brother Joёl attempted to break into English football, with a trial at League 1 club Leyton Orient. However, the trial proved unsuccessful.

His transfer from Olympique de Marseille to Chelsea in July 2004 is one of those about which the Stevens inquiry report in June 2007 expressed concerns because of the lack of co-operation from agents Pinhas Zahavi and Barry Silkman^[10].

2007-08

Drogba continued his rich vein of form from the 2006-07 campaign into the following season. Whilst injury saw him miss the Community Shield match against Premier League champions Manchester United, as well as Chelsea's first league match of the season against Birmingham City. He scored his first goal of the season in a win against Reading and also set-up Frank Lampard's equalising goal. Against Portsmouth F.C., he set up Frank Lampard for the only and the winning goal of the game. He also scored the winning goal in Chelsea's fine 2-1 over Valencia at the Mestalla in the Champion's League. Drogba was reported to be in tears when former manager Jose Mourinho came to Chelsea's training ground one last time to say goodbye to his players after he left by 'mutual consent'.

On 28 September 2007, it was reported that Didier Drogba could be in line for a shock return against Fulham F.C., a game in which he was subsequently sent off for two bookable offences. He received a one match domestic ban for this dismissal and missed Chelsea's Premier League match against Bolton on 07 October 2007 as a result.

Drogba claims to be "dismayed" by the departure of Mourinho. He was reportedly in tears when Mourinho told him he was leaving the club, and said "Mourinho's departure destroys a certain familiarity we had at the club. Many of us used to play first and foremost for the manager. Now we need to forget those feelings and find another source of motivation."^[11] Following these claims, Drogba told France Football Magazine "I want to leave Chelsea. Something is broken with Chelsea, The damage is big in the dressing room." In the interview he also claimed that "morale has plummeted since Jose Mourinho left." Despite having signed a four year contract with the club in 2006, Drogba reportedly pointed out several favoured clubs in the interview. Drogba is cited as listing Barcelona, Real Madrid, A.C. Milan or Inter Milan as possible future destinations,^[12], though recently he admitted he regrets claiming he wants to leave the club, and claims to be 100% committed to the club.^[13] He started to show his commitment in the recent matches after his outburst, firstly by scoring in Chelsea's 2-0 victory over Middlesbrough on 20th October and then against Schalke 04 in the Champions League on the 24th October, and 2 goals against Manchester City, giving superb performances in all.

Goals also followed firstly against Everton in a 1-1 draw on the 11th November and a superb brace in a 4-0 victory over Rosenborg in Trondheim. Drogba subsequently became injured following a training ground injury and decided to have an operation on his knee, which would see him out for 4 weeks and miss the crucial "Christmas Period" of the season, which included key games against Valencia, Arsenal and Liverpool. Drogba returned from injury to play half an hour in an FA Cup 3rd round match against QPR, and was his last performance in a blue shirt before leaving to the African Nations Cup. Drogba also scored both goals in a 2-1 victory against Arsenal F.C. on 23rd March 2008. The win helped Chelsea leap frog Arsenal into second place, now tied on points with Manchester United F.C..

On April 26, 2008 Drogba had an "accidental" clash with Manchester United defender Nemanja Vidic, the Serbian centre-back had to have stitches under his lip after losing a tooth in the clash. There is a debate whether Drogba had the intention or not to injure his rival.

Before the UEFA Champions League Semi-Final 2nd Leg clash with Liverpool FC, Drogba has been a target of diving claims thrown at him by Liverpool coach Rafa Benitez. Benitez claims to have compiled a four-year dossier of Drogba's 'diving' antics and Drogba has since bit back at Benitez saying:

"Benitez was a coach I used to respect a lot. I used to believe he had class but he has seriously disappointed me. His words have shown his weakness. A great coach will never attack a player so meanly. If he doesn't want me to fall down he should focus on his team's game and tell his defenders to stop fouling me. In the first leg, Carragher and Skrtel didn't stop. At the end of the match I was covered in bruises. Last year, I picked up a broken rib during the Champions League semi-final against Liverpool"

On April 30, 2008 Drogba scored 2 goals in the UEFA Champions League Semi-Final against Liverpool F.C., which Chelsea F.C. won 3-2 at Stamford Bridge. Drogba scored his first in the 33rd minute and his second in overtime, in the 105th minute, which would eventually seal the victory for Chelsea. This was the first time Chelsea had beaten Liverpool in the Semi-Finals of the Champions League, having lost their previous two meetings to Liverpool. This lead to Chelsea reaching their first Champions League Final. Drogba is also Chelsea's top scorer in European competition, the two goals he scored putting his tally at 17, beating Peter Osgood's record of 16.^[14]

International

Drogba is a Côte d'Ivoire international and helped the team qualify for its first ever World Cup Finals, held in Germany in 2006. His first cap came on September 8, 2002 against South Africa (0-0). He scored his first goal with "The Elephants" the February 11, 2003 in Cameroon (victory 3-0). He scored nine goals in eight qualifying games - statistically one of the best records in international football. In February 2005 he was voted runner-up to Samuel Eto'o in the African Footballer of the Year awards. He has scored 27 times in 41 caps, as of August 21, 2007. It is considered probable that he holds the all-time goalscoring record for Côte d'Ivoire, but due to uncertainty surrounding other players' statistics, this cannot be confirmed.^[15]

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-tying 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's shot being stopped by Egyptian goalkeeper Essam El-Hadary in a penalty shoot-out.

In the 2006 World Cup, Côte d'Ivoire were drawn in a "group of death" with Serbia and Montenegro, the Netherlands and Argentina. On June 10, 2006, Drogba scored the first World Cup goal of his career and of his country's history in the opening game against Argentina, but his team lost 2-1. At the post-match press conference, Drogba praised his team-mates for a good overall performance (singling out Bakari Kone and Didier Zokora in particular), but said that he and his team-mates have to work at cutting out mistakes and becoming better organised. "The difference between big teams like Argentina and small teams like us," Drogba said, "is that the big teams make the small teams pay for their mistakes. When you play opponents like Argentina, when you make little mistakes, you pay."

Côte d'Ivoire was eliminated from the World Cup after their next game, a 1-2 defeat to the Netherlands, but came from 0-2 down to beat Serbia and Montenegro 3-2 in their final group game, with Drogba watching from the sidelines following suspension. Drogba was seen celebrating wildly with his Ivorian teammates in the dugout at the final whistle. He later told German television that he was "immensely proud" of his teammates, and felt that the team had done Africa proud, especially by demonstrating resolve and refusal to accept defeat.

In February 2007, Drogba was appointed as UNDP Goodwill Ambassador ^[16]

In the 2008 African Cup of Nations, Côte d'Ivoire were drawn in a group with Nigeria, Mali and underdogs Benin. Drogba scored two goals in the group stage, opening the scoring in the 4-1 win over Benin and the first on the score sheet again in the 3-0 win over Mali. Côte d'Ivoire had beaten Nigeria earlier on in the group through a Salomon Kalou goal, and so they went through to the Quarter Finals comfortably, finishing top of group B. In the quarter finals, Drogba was on the score sheet once again in the 5-0 thrashing of Guinea with the last four goals coming in the final twenty minutes. The semi final was a rematch of the 2006 final against Egypt, but it was to be the end of the road for Didier and the Côte d'Ivoire, at the hands of the 2006 champions, losing 4-1 and then had no more luck in 3rd place play-off, losing 4-2 to Ghana. Drogba ended up joint top scorer for the Côte d'Ivoire along with Salomon Kalou, Abdul Kader Keita and Boubacar Sanogo on three goals.

Honours

Chelsea

• English Premier League: 2
   

2004–05, 2005–06

• FA Cup: 1
   

2007

• Football League Cup: 2
   

2005, 2007

• FA Community Shield: 1
   

2005

Personal

• English Golden Boot: 1
   

2006–07

• African Footballer of the Year: 1
   

2006–07

Awards
African Footballer of the Year 2006
Sporting positions
Premier League top scorer 2006 – 2007

Ranked 4th for both European Footballer of the Year and FIFA World Player of the Year awards.