Didier Drogba, the biography of a legend

Born on March 11, 1978 in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Didier Yves Tebily Drogba left the shores of the Ebrié lagoon at the age of 6 and took off towards an extraordinary destiny.

He spent most of his childhood in France under the parental responsibility of his uncle Michel Goba, at the time a professional footballer and former Ivorian international. It is therefore with a football between his legs that he will learn to run. A model student, Didier Drogba has always been very involved in everything he has undertaken. Known to be a hard worker and always in search of perfection, he remained a shy and introverted child who only revealed his strong personality on a football field; which hinted at the future Chelsea goalscorer.

Thus, his professional career began at Le Mans at the age of twenty, after having been an amateur footballer for many years. This makes all the particularity of the atypical profile of the player since he has never gone through the famous training centers. He trained himself and redoubled his efforts to make himself known. After Guingamp where he discovered the first division from 2001 to 2003 it is in Marseille that the planetary star that we know is revealed.

In 2004, it exploded on the European and international scene and became the darling of the very critical Stade du Velodrome de Marseille. “Unstoppable”, Didier Drogba is courted by the biggest clubs in the world and it is Chelsea FC who manages to obtain his arrival in 2004. After a difficult start to integration, he manages to unite his teammates; and makes himself essential in the device of the famous trainer Jose Mourinho. He becomes the pillar, the main leader of this team within which he will evolve for nine years.

He wins major trophies one after the other. Four times English champion, four times FA Cup winner, three times Community Shield winner, twice top scorer in the English league. In 2012 he won the prized trophy that is the Champion's League and left Chelsea being voted player of the century by the club's supporters, top African scorer in the Champion's League and best African scorer in the English Premier League.

After a brief stint in China where he only spent six months, it was in Turkey with the Galatasaray club that he excelled again. He will stay there for a year and a half and it will be enough for him to become Turkish champion, Turkish cup winner and sports personality of the year. At the twilight of his career Didier signed with the Montreal Impact club for a period of a year and a half and discovered "soccer", writing the most beautiful pages in the history of the Canadian club.

It was in the United States, in Phoenix in the second American division, that he ended his career as a professional footballer at the record age of 40, after twenty years of professionalism, seven hundred games played for more than 360 goals. marked.

In parallel with this busy career, Didier Drogba created his foundation in 2007 and intends to put his popularity at the service of education, health, women and Ivorian and African youth. From then on, many projects for human development were born: construction of a health center, schools, setting up of a mobile clinic for the screening of cardiovascular pathology... A man of peace, he is also vice-president of Peace and sports. Indeed in 2005, following the qualification of Côte d'Ivoire for the World Cup in Germany, he sent a message of peace with his teammates to his country of origin in the grip of internal crises. Message that will make him one of the ten most influential personalities in the world according to the prestigious Times Magazine.

Co-owner of the Phoenix Rising club in the United States, Didier Drogba wishes to become more involved in sporting life and help young sportsmen and the rise of Ivorian football.

Didier Drogba is a success story that never ends!

Source: didierdrogbafoundation.org