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Didier Yves Drogba Tébily (born March 11, 1978 in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire) is
a footballer from Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) who currently plays for
Chelsea F.C. of the English Premier League.
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. Didier spent three years there with his uncle,
living in Brest, Angoulême and Dunkerque, before returning home.
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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
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 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 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.
Marseille initially struggled, with Alain Perrin, who signed Didier from
Guingamp, being soon 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. Again he attracted attention from
bigger clubs, and at the end of the season he moved to Chelsea as the club's
record signing for £24 million. He had a good partnership with Mido for some
time, before both of them departed.
Signing for Chelsea 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.
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 seemingly admitted to cheating, before retracting his
comment. Chelsea went on to win the league title with two games to play.
Ultimately, he finished the 2005/6 season as the top assister in the Premier
League, according to Actim Stats. His 11 assists put him one above James
Milner of Aston Villa.
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. 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 33 caps, as of June 11, 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 has been 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 Bakary 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."
Drogba has admitted to diving in an attempt to get fouls or to get other
players booked. After Chelsea's 2-nil victory over Manchester City, he is
quoted as having said, "Sometimes I dive, sometimes I stand." Drogba later
retracted the statement, saying instead that he does not dive.
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 John Obi Mikel. |
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DIDIER DROGBA PICTURES |
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MOST POPULAR
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ADDITIONS
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