Lille: The ability to single-handedly bully defenders, raising his game for a big occasion and possessing technical finesse that was unusual for a gangly striker exemplified Didier Drogba’s presence on the football pitch.
Despite bagging every top honour in club football with the Chelsea, and being one of the cornerstones of the revolution under owner Roman Abramovich, Drogba considers France his first home.
The country shaped the Ivorian during his formative years and he insists that the football education in France served him well during his trophy-laden tenure with the London giants, where he is now one of their all-time greats.
“I leaned a lot playing in France,” Drogba, now a French Ligue 1 ambassador, said during an interaction with the media. “The league here is very different. You learn to read the game better. It’s very tactical. I played the second division and the first division and that helped me when I went abroad and played for Chelsea.”
Unlike many of his compatriots who move to France at a later stage in their career, Drogba spent teenage years in France. It was at Guingamp, who reached the French League Cup final recently, and later, Marseille where he would come into his own. Those performances later earned him a big-money move to Chelsea in 2004.
“I started playing in the second division and I learnt all my football here,” the 41-year-old said, remembering his time in France. “This is home to me.”
However, he was realistic about what French clubs can offer to the Champions League table. Paris Saint-Germain, underachievers in the continental showpiece so far, are perhaps the only clubs that can challenge the status quo of the English and Spanish giants along with Bayern Munich.
“The [French] clubs have the quality but it’s just a matter of the budget,” he said. “The players who started here are playing in the best clubs in the world now. If all the clubs had the budget of Chelsea, Man United or Madrid, it would be a different story,” he said.
Drogba, though, argued that even Premier League was not that bit a force it is now two decades ago. “It took 20 years for Premier League to get on the map,” he said.
“It is a league known for its intensity now. I believe that the same impact can happen to France as well. They now have the opportunity to take the game to countries like India, the Americas as well as other parts of Asia. That should help them bridge the gap,” he added.
Fifteen years ago, Drogba opened the floodgates for his countrymen and the likes of the Toure brothers, Gervinho, Salomon Kalou among others made a mark in big clubs. Now, another Ivorian in LOSC Lille winger Nicolas Pepe is having a memorable season having scored 19 goals in all competitions so far.
Drogba is impressed with his progress. “Pepe has been improving a lot every year. He has been scoring a lot of goals and consistent. We, at Ivory Coast, are happy to have him and we expect a lot from him.”
‘Not thinking about management’
A few months ago, Drogba was in India for a promotional event, leading to speculation that he might consider playing or taking up a coaching role in the Indian Super League. His former Chelsea teammates John Terry and Frank Lampard have already begun their journey on the touchline. But, he rubbished such talk.
“I never said that I wanted to get into management,” he clarified. “After playing non-stop for 20 years, I need a break. I enjoy travelling, working with my foundation. So I’m enjoying what I’m doing now....the work with Ligue 1 as an ambassador.”
The two-time Premier League golden boot winner also weighed in on racism, something that countries across Europe have perennially struggled to eliminate in the stands. Recently, Juventus forward Moise Kean was at the epicentre of a widely talked about incident. The young Italian was hurled with abuses from Cagliari fans after scoring a goal.
Despite France’s multicultural makeup, a binding factor for both their World Cup wins – in 1998 and 2018 – there is the odd incident or two that strikes at the heart of football’s racism problem.
Having witnessed it from up close, Drogba feels that is a minor section of fans who bring the game into disrepute and not the players or the support staff.
“You are focussing on France, but this [racism] is a problem in society right now,” he said. “People speak about discrimination and it doesn’t have a place in football. Over here [in football], we are inclusive and the game has the power to unite people.
“So when you look very closely at the teams, the players and the staff, there is no discrimination. Most of the time, it is the people coming to the game who bring it. It is politicians who bring it. I played football for 20 years and this has not happened to me from the people I worked with.”