Didier Yves Drogba Tébily (born March 11, 1978 in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire) is a footballer from Côte d'Ivoire who currently plays for Chelsea F.C. of the English Premier League. He is currently top goal scorer in both the English Premier League and the UEFA Champions League.

Early life

Born in Abidjan on 11 March 1978, Didier Drogba spent his childhood in his native Côte d'Ivoire 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. Drogba 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 Drogba signed for Levallois F.C. 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.

Career

Le Mans and Guingamp

Drogba signed for Le Mans in 1998 (aged 19), who at the time were 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 En Avant Guingamp, who signed him in 2002, taking him up to Ligue 1 (aged 24). Drogba 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, Drogba 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 Alain Perrin, who signed Drogba from Guingamp, being soon replaced by José Anigo. However, Drogba was an consistent performer, scoring 19 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. Again he attracted attention from bigger clubs with a string of good proformances (most notably in the UEFA cup against Newcastle where he scored two goals including a cleverly orchastrated corner). At the end of the season he moved to Chelsea as the club's then record signing for £24 million, before the arrival of Andriy Shevchenko for around £30 million in the summer of 2006.

Chelsea

Signing for Chelsea in July 2004, Drogba 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, 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. 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 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."^[1]

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 assist provider in the Premier League, with 11 assists according to Actim Stats.

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, which he wears for his national team. As of December 2006, Drogba is currently having a very successful season, having scored 20 goals in all competitions for Chelsea and topping the scoring charts in the Premier League with 13 goals, helping to keep Chelsea in touch with Man Utd. A diving header on the end of a cross from Wayne Bridge against Manchester City opened the floodgates, and was followed by a solo goal against Blackburn Rovers at Ewood Park, an instinctive effort against Charlton Athletic, a stunning twenty yard volley in a 1-0 victory over Liverpool, and a crucial goal poked in against Aston Villa. Drogba also earned a second-half penalty in Chelsea's first Champions League game of the season, a 2-0 home victory over Werder Bremen.

His rich vein of form continued in the Champions League, against Bulgarian side Levski Sofia when he gave Chelsea their first 2006 away win in Europe by scoring his first Chelsea hat-trick, Chelsea’s first UEFA Champions League hat-trick, and the first European hat-trick by a Chelsea player since Gianluca Vialli's in the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup 1997. On October 18 in the 46 minute Drogba received a pass from Ashley Cole and scored the winning goal against FC Barcelona in their group match at Stamford Bridge. In the reverse fixture on 31 October 2006, Drogba scored a 93rd minute equaliser which started from a Michael Essien cross directed to Chelsea FC skipper John Terry who in turn headed it back to Drogba at the Nou Camp to earn Chelsea a 2-2 draw against Barcelona.

On November 3, 2006 he committed his future to the club by signing a new four year deal. His first goal since signing his new contract was the fourth goal in Chelsea's 4-0 romp over Aston Villa in the 4th round of the 2006/2007 Carling Cup.

On December 17, 2006 he extended his goal tally to 16 goals, 10 of which came in the Premier League, by stabbing home Chelsea's winner against Newcastle United and scoring with a spectacular dipping volley from 35 yards out against Everton F.C.. He also scored another crucial goal to ensure Chelsea's progression to the semi-finals of the Carling Cup, again coming on as a match-winning sub against Newcastle United to "blast home a superb 78th-minute winner".^[2]

After a brace against Reading F.C. on Boxing Day, Drogba reached the 20-goal milestone on December 30, 2006, when he scored in Chelsea's 2-2 home draw with Fulham.

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.^[3]

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. 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 24 times in 34 caps, as of June 17, 2006.

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.

In the 2006 World Cup, Côte d'Ivoire was 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 were 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.

Honours

Club

• FA Community Shield (2005)
• Football League Cup (2005)
• English Premier League (2004-05),(2005-06)

References