Didier Drogba biography
Didier Drogba, in full Didier Yves Drogba Tébily, (born March 11, 1978, Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire), Ivorian professional football (soccer) player who was Côte d’Ivoire’s all-time leader in goals scored in international matches and was twice named the African Footballer of the Year (2006, 2009).
At age 5 Drogba was despatched to France within the care of an uncle, an expert footballer. After three years he returned residence, solely to return to France after three extra years in Côte d’Ivoire. At age 15 Drogba turned an apprentice with second-division Levallois, exterior Paris, after which in 1997–98 he moved to Le Mans FC, the place in his second season he signed as an expert.
In January 2002 Drogba joined top-division Guingamp, tallying 17 targets in 34 league video games. This success prompted a 2003 commerce to Olympique de Marseille, the place he scored 19 targets in 35 home matches and a further 11 targets in European play because the membership reached the 2004 Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) Cup closing, the place it misplaced 2–0 to Valencia of Spain.
Drogba moved to England’s Chelsea FC in 2004 in a commerce from Marseille. Though Chelsea received its first Premier League championship in 50 years the next season, its new centre-forward was inconsistent. Drogba was fast, alert, and supremely assured in his personal means, although he confirmed an inclination to a fast mood in matches. Even in his second season, when Chelsea’s title was efficiently defended, fan appreciation was nonetheless muted. Yet by the tip of the 2006–07 season, when Chelsea failed in its try and take a 3rd straight league championship, Drogba had received over a lot of the skeptical Chelsea followers by being the league’s prime scorer (with 20 targets) and by ending the season with an total tally of 33 targets. In addition, he was the important thing participant in Chelsea’s successful each the Football Association (FA) Cup and Carling Cup trophies that season, as he scored the membership’s solely targets within the finals of these two tournaments. Drogba helped lead Chelsea to the 2008 Champions League closing, the place he as soon as once more earned fan ire by slapping an opposing participant and getting despatched off in a match that Chelsea finally misplaced to Manchester United by one penalty kick. In 2009 he earned a measure of redemption as Chelsea received its second FA Cup with Drogba on the squad. The following 12 months Chelsea received each the FA Cup and the Premier League title, with Drogba main the league in targets—29 for the season. In the 2012 Champions League closing, he scored Chelsea’s lone regulation aim and the successful extra-time penalty kick to information Chelsea previous Bayern Munich and seize the crew’s first European membership championship.
In the next low season, Drogba signed with the Chinese membership Shanghai Shenhua, however he performed solely 11 matches with the crew earlier than returning to European soccer as a member of Istanbul’s Galatasaray SK in January 2013. He helped Galatasaray win the Turkish first-division championship in his inaugural season with the crew. In July 2014 he returned to Chelsea on a one-year contract. The following 12 months he signed with the Montreal Impact of Major League Soccer in North America. In 2017 he joined the Phoenix Rising of the second-tier United Soccer League as each a participant and half proprietor. However, the next 12 months he retired from aggressive play.
Drogba made his first worldwide look for Côte d’Ivoire in 2002. In 2006 he captained Côte d’Ivoire to the African Cup of Nations closing match, the place the crew misplaced to Egypt on penalty kicks. His efficiency within the qualifying matches for the 2006 World Cup was key to Drogba’s successful that 12 months’s African Footballer of the Year award, as his 9 targets in eight preliminary matches catapulted the Ivorians into the World Cup for the primary time. Drogba led Côte d’Ivoire to a fourth-place end within the 2008 Cup of Nations, and the crew certified for its second consecutive World Cup in 2010. In 2012 he captained his nation to a runners-up end on the Cup of Nations and helped Côte d’Ivoire qualify for the 2014 World Cup, the place his crew, Les Éléphants, agonizingly missed out on advancing to the event’s knockout stage for the primary time by conceding a stoppage-time aim on a penalty kick in its closing group-stage match. Shortly thereafter Drogba introduced that he was retiring from worldwide play.
In 2011 Drogba’s native Côte d’Ivoire underwent civil battle following a disputed presidential election, and in its aftermath Drogba was appointed to an 11-member reality and reconciliation fee established to ease the nation’s divide. The fee submitted a closing report in 2014.
Drogba was concerned in philanthropic causes, and in 2007 he established the Didier Drogba Foundation.