Didier Drogba has announced his retirement from professional football.
The former Marseille, Chelsea and Galatasaray forward will mark the end of a glittering career once current club Phoenix Rising's season is complete.
He told Telefoot: "It's really a pleasure for me to play. I started late at the top level. I really enjoy playing. I like my role of owner-player a lot. I'm surrounded by a lot of youngsters, and I like passing my know-how on to them. But this season is the last. I'm 40, it's time now."
Goal takes a look at the two-time African Player of the Year and some of his finest moments in the game.
Drogba's net worth
Drogba is estimated to be worth around $90 million and has worked with some of the world's largest brands in Samsung, Pepsi, Adidas, Nike and Konami.
Previous clubs
As a child, Drogba split his time between his parents in the Ivory Coast and with his uncle, former professional football player Michel Goba, in France. As such, Drogba played his football for a number of youth teams, including US Tourcoing FC, SC Abbeville, Levallois SC, and Vannes Olympique Club, before breaking into the first team at Ligue 2 Le Mans, who Drogba would go on to represent for four seasons.
Drogba's first professional contract was signed in 1999 at the age of 21, considerably later than many of his team-mates, and it would take the birth of his son, Isaac, for the forward to take his career seriously. "Isaac's birth was a turning point in my life, it straightened me out," Drogba said during an interview in 2004.
A season and a half with Guingamp led to a switch to Marseille, for whom he scored over 30 goals in his only season with the top-flight club.
It would be during Drogba's time at Chelsea that he would earn his reputation, however.
Drogba's Chelsea stats
Drogba arrived at Stamford Bridge in 2004 and would go on to make 226 Premier League appearances and score 100 league goals before he left for China in 2012.
He also scored a further 57 goals in cup competitions, taking his total number of goals to 157 in 341 appearances across all competitions.
Drogba returned to west London for the 2014-15 campaign and scored four goals in 28 appearances, though only eight of those were starts.
In total, Drogba scored 104 Premier League goals for Chelsea in 254 appearances, and 164 in 381 games altogether with 86 assists.
The end of his first spell at Chelsea came when his contract expired at the end of the 2011-12 season, with Chinese Super League side Shanghai Shenhua picking him up on a two-year, £200,000-per-week contract, though he left for Turkey after just six months, joining Galatasaray in January 2013.
A successful two-year stint in the Turkish Super Lig was followed by a brief return to Chelsea, before he signed for MLS outfit Montreal Impact as a Designated Player.
Drogba's time in Montreal fizzled out before joining Pheonix Rising as a player, but also as an owner.
Goals & awards
Drogba scored 14 goals in 69 appearances for first club Le Mans, 23 in 49 for Guingamp, 32 in 55 for Marseille, 164 goals in 381 for Chelsea, and 20 goals in 53 games for Galatasaray.
In China, Drogba scored eight goals in 11 games for Shenua, and for Montreal Impact he scored 23 in 41.
| Club | Appearances | Goals | Assists |
|---|---|---|---|
| Le Mans | 69 | 14 | NA |
| Guingamp | 49 | 23 | NA |
| Marseille | 55 | 32 | 1 |
| Chelsea | 381 | 164 | 86 |
| Shanghai Shenua | 11 | 8 | 2 |
| Galatasaray | 53 | 20 | 13 |
| Montreal Impact | 41 | 23 | 7 |
| Total | 659 | 284 | 109 |
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."
Drogba's Instagram & Twitter
Drogba has a following of 1.5 million on his official Twitter account, and just short of 6m on Instagram.
The 40-year-old falls some way short of making the list of the top 25 followed footballers on Instagram, however, with Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar and Lionel Messi topping the bill.
