Didier Drogba Biography

Didier Drogba biography
Cote d'Ivoire football player
African Footballer
Didier Yves Drogba Tébily
born March 11, 1978 in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire
Height 1.89 m (6 ft 2 in)
Playing position Striker
Club App (Goals)
Le Mans 64 (12)
En Avant Guingamp 44 (20)
Olympique de Marseille 35 (19)
Chelsea 90 (41) 15th April 2007
A footballer from the Ivory Coast Côte d'Ivoire who currently plays for Chelsea FC the English Premier League.
He has played 40 occasions and scored 28 up to 4 January 2007.
He has played for Le Mans, En Avant Guingamp, Olympique de Marseille and Chelsea.

Born in Abidjan on 11 March 1978, Didier Drogba spent his childhood in his home nation Côte d'Ivoire and France. Tito, as he was known to friends and family, first left the country of his birth aged 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 the economy, 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, first to Vannes and then in 1993 settling at Antony in the Paris suburbs, at which point the 15 year old Drogba rejoined his family. He signed for local club Levallois, where he rose through the ranks, playing for them in Ligue 2 aged 18.

Career

Le Mans and Guingamp
Drogba signed for Le Mans in 1998 when aged 19, who at the time were 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. 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 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 a consistent performer, scoring 19 goals and winning a award for French player of the year. He collected a UEFA Cup runner's up medal, losing to Valencia in the final. Again he attracted attention from bigger sides with a string of good performances,most notably in the UEFA cup against Newcastle where he scored two goals including a cleverly orchestrated corner. At the end of the season he moved to Chelsea as the club's record signing for £24 million, before the arrival of Andriy Shevchenko for £30 million in the summer of 2006.

Chelsea

Signing for Chelsea in July 2004, Drogba adapted 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. Despite this he enjoyed the second best goals to minutes ratio in the Premier League, Thierry Henry being the only player to better him. He scored 16 goals in 40 games for Chelsea in his first season, but was criticized for being inconsistent.

The season proved 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 in 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 a second of his two goals. In a post match interview with the BBC, he acknowledged he had handled the ball. To this day though Drogba has a reputation of going down too easy when tackled. But this is common for many non British striker gain such a reputation.

Chelsea went 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. Drogba finished the 2005-06 season as top assist provider in the Premier League.

On June 11, 2006, Drogba, who had previously disclosed he wanted to return to Marseille because he had been demonised by the English media, said 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.

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 also wears for his national team. As of February 2007, Drogba is having a successful season, having scored 30 goals in all competitions for Chelsea and is top in the Premier League goal-scoring charts with 18 goals in February 25, 2007, helping to keep Chelsea in touch with Manchester United. 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 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 a 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 a 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 headed it to Drogba, in 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 a 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.

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. As of February 25, 2007 Drogba's tally has reached 28 for the season in all competitions after netting two goals against Arsenal in the Football League Cup Final 2007 on February 25, 2007. A week after the Carling Cup final, Drogba netted a 29th goal of the season with a precise strike after a deep cross from Ashley Cole. Just over a month later, he scored his 30th of the season against Valencia CF, making him the first Chelsea player since Kerry Dixon in 1984-85 to score 30 goals in a season.

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 2007, Drogba was named African Footballer of the Year for the first time in his career, ahead of Cameroon and Barcelona forward Samuel Eto'o and Drogba's own Chelsea team-mate, Ghanaian Michael Essien.

Drogba is currently second in Actim Stats, just 9 points behind Portugese and United winger Cristiano Ronaldo. While, team mate Frank Lampard currently third.

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

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 nation'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 he and his team-mates have to work at cutting out mistakes and becoming better organised.

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.

In February 2007, Drogba was appointed as UNDP Goodwill Ambassador

Honours
English Premier League: 2 2004–05, 2005–06
Football League Cup: 2 2004–05, 2006–07
FA Community Shield: 1 2005-06

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