Didier Yves Drogba Tébily known as Didier Drogba is a retired Ivorian professional football player who played as a striker for the American soccer club, Phoenix Rising. He is perhaps best known for playing for the English Premier League giant, Chelsea FC and is currently the fourth highest goalscorer in the club’s history.
Drogba made his senior debut for Ivory Coast in 2002 and is the national all-time goal scorer with 65 goals in 104 appearances. The former national team captain, Drogba is also the African Player of the Year on two occasions.
Didier Drogba holds an Ivorian nationality with African heritage. He was born to mother, Clotilde Drogba, and father, Albert Drogba in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. Aged 40, his date of birth is 11 March 1978.
He moved to France when he was only five where he lived with his uncle, Michel Goba who was a professional footballer and joined the youth ranks of several French football clubs like Tourcoing, Vannes as well as Le Mans.
His annual salary is estimated to be more than $15 million playing for his current club.
Looking at his illustrious playing career, his net worth is estimated to be around $90 million. Talking about his assets, his house is worth $21 million which according to sources is the highest amount of house purchased by a footballer.
The house covers 8,600 square foot of area and has seven bedrooms and eight bathrooms. In addition, he has a fleet of luxurious cars such as Porsche, Mercedes, Ferrari, Mini Cooper as well as Range Rover Sport to name a few that costs millions of dollars.
After playing for the youth and reserve team of the French club, Le Mans, he joined the main team to start his senior playing career in 1998 and went to play for French clubs such as En Avant de Guingamp and Marseille.
He, later on, moved to England and signed with English Premier League club, Chelsea FC for a record transfer fee of £24 million in the summer of 2004. The record transfer was later suppressed by Ghanian midfielder Michael Essien record signing of £ 24.4 million in 2005.
The Ivorian striker scored his first goal for Chelsea against Crystal Palace. With the club played along great players such as the English player John Terry and Dutch player Arjen Robben as well as part of the victorious Chelsea side that won the Premier League title in 2004/05 and 2005/06.
He has also won the UEFA Champions League in 2011/12 as the part of the Chelsea team.
After a successful playing stint with Chelsea, he signed with the Turkish football club, Galatasaray for a reported transfer fee of €4 million in the early 2013 and was the part of the successful Turkish club that went on to win the Turkish Super Lig in 2012/13 as well as Turkish Cup in 2013/14.
He later rejoined his former club, Chelsea for his second stint on July 2014 for a one-year contract deal and was transferred to American Major League Soccer club, Montreal Impact on the summer of 2015.
Drogba made his debut against Philadelphia Union and scored a hattrick on his MLS start on 5 September2015.
Currently, he is playing for the American club, Phoenix Rising FC whom he signed on 2017 and is also the owner of the club, making him the very first owner and player in the history of the game.
He made his international debut for Ivory Coast in 2002 and was the major player for Ivory Coast qualifying for the World Cup for the first time in history in 2006 FIFA World Cup.
Drogba retired from international football in 2014. He made 104 appearances and scored 65 goals for Ivory Coast.
Didier Drogba is a Roman Catholic and is married to his wife, Diakite Lalla, a Mali native. The couple is blessed with two sons Issac and Kieran Drogba and daughter, Iman Drogba.
His eldest son Issac born in 1999 is currently with the Chelsea academy.
A highly influential Ivorian personality, he contributed a major role in bringing peace in the country of Ivory Coast. For his efforts, he was appointed the UNDP Goodwill Ambassador and has donated several millions of pounds to charity to support several causes like Hospital construction in Abidjan.
He created Didier Drogba Foundation in 2007 and was also featured in FIFA 11 against Ebola which includes players such as Neymar, Gareth Bale as well as Xavi to support the cause in 2014.
