Why We Love Didier Drogba

Drogba has a host of team and individual accolades, including four Premier League titles with Chelsea. He also helped the Blues to four FA Cups, three League Cups and two Community Shields, as well as scoring the winning penalty to seal the club’s first ever Champions League title in 2011-12.

During his time with Galatasaray, Drogba won the Turkish Super Lig title, the Turkish Super Cup and the Turkish Cup.

On a personal basis, Drogba was named as the Ligue 1 Player of the Year in 2004, scored the Ligue 1 Goal of the Year in the same year, and also bagged a spot in the Ligue 1 Team of the Season.

Drogba was named as the African Player of the Year in 2006 and again in 2009 and has been named in the CAF Team of the Year on five occasions.

His 20 Premier League goals were enough to win him the 2006-07 Golden Boot, and he was named as the league’s top scorer again in 2009-10 with 29.

Drogba finished fourth in the Ballon d’Or voting in 2007, was named Chelsea’s Player of the year in 2007, and was named to the 2016 MLS All-Star team.

Drogba’s wife & family

Drogba married long-term partner Diakite Lalla in a private ceremony in Monaco in 2011, and the pair have three children together.

Their eldest son, Isaac, born in 2000, signed to the Chelsea academy as a youngster before leaving for Guingamp in February 2018. He has a daughter called Iman, and another son named Kieran.

Drogba also has two footballing brothers, Joel, 32, and Freddy, 26.

As mentioned, Drogba’s uncle, Michel Goba, also played football, while Michel’s son Kevin has played across the lower divisions in France. He is also the cousin of former Birmingham and Celtic defender Olivier Tebily.

How old is Didier Drogba?

Drogba celebrated his 40th birthday Sunday, March 12.

Charity work & political career

Following Ivory Coast securing their place in the 2006 World Cup, Drogba used his status to make a desperate call for a ceasefire in his war-torn country.

“It was just something I did instinctively,” he told the Telegraph in 2007. “All the players hated what was happening to our country and reaching the World Cup was the perfect emotional wave on which to ride.”

Within a week of Drogba’s plea, warring combatants had agreed to lay down their arms following five years of civil war. Drogba was also involved in relocating an African Cup of Nations qualifier against Madagascar to the rebel stronghold of Bouake.

Drogba is a Goodwill Ambassador for United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and in 2010 joined iconic figures such as Muhammad Ali and Michael Jordan as sportsmen to be named in the world’s 100 most influential people by Time magazine.

His charity body, The Didier Drogba Foundation, has worked on numerous projects throughout Africa and teamed up with FIFA in 2014 in an attempt to tackle ebola.

Drogba also previously donated a £3m fee he earned through a sponsorship deal with Pepsi to pay for the construction of a hospital in his hometown of Abidjan.

Despite being the face of his country, Drogba recently denied that he would make a move into politics or run for presidency following former PSG and AC Milan star George Weah becoming the 25th President of Liberia in 2018.

“It’s not necessarily the case that all footballers will [now] want to become president. George [Weah] has opened the way for him to make an impact in his own way, and others can make an impact on their communities in other ways.”