Winning the Champions League provided the striker with the perfect send-off after eight successful years
In the end the timing just felt right. Didier Drogba had long since set himself the target of hoisting Chelsea's first European Cup so, in the boisterous celebrations deep in the bowels of the Allianz Arena on Saturday night, his decision was made easy. It was the Bayern Munich coach, Jupp Heynckes, who had tempted fate on the eve of the final by suggesting the striker was "a good actor", so no one should really have been surprised that events played out as if lifted from a Hollywood script. "It was like a movie," says the Ivorian. "Given what he said, maybe I should just play myself."
For Drogba the dust is still settling on the most glittering night of Chelsea's history. His farewells have been delivered to team-mates, most of whom have since dispersed around the globe, and staff. On Wednesday the 34-year-old will be cheered as he runs through the streets of Swindon carrying the Olympic torch with the weeks to come to determine whether his future lies in the Chinese Super League, Major League Soccer or elsewhere. New challenges await a forward who departs as a free agent with 157 goals, three Premier League titles, four FA Cups, two League Cups and, most coveted of all, a Champions League as plunder. He also leaves a figurehead of the Roman Abramovich era at Stamford Bridge whose status will endure.
None of this would have felt possible in 2004 as he laboured through the first few months of his Chelsea career, adjusting to life in a new country after his £24m move from Marseille. Eight years on and the parting of the ways has been emotional. "Telling my team-mates was very difficult because, while I wouldn't say we 'created' Chelsea, we did start a new era here," he said. "We helped build something really strong in terms of identity. Now we go everywhere in the world and everyone knows about Chelsea. You go to Africa and people speak about Chelsea. I've seen kids wearing shirts in the streets, in India, everywhere: Chelsea is a brand and we are very proud to have achieved what we have.
"None of this would have been possible without the Big Boss, Roman Abramovich. So the best way to repay him was to win the Champions League. We made history. We spoke after that game and he said he understood my feelings, respected my choice and that I would be a Chelsea player forever. He's a very good man and he gave me and my family everything, a chance to have comfort and a nice lifestyle. I didn't have these things in the Ivory Coast. My family can now benefit. Maybe he doesn't know it but he has helped a lot of people.
"I could have stayed at the club for as long as I was performing and they wanted me but it's the right time. When you have been trying to win the Champions League for eight years and finally achieve it, what's next? I wouldn't play for anyone else in England. I owe too much allegiance to Chelsea. My blood is blue, I won't change, but I want a new challenge. Even a few weeks ago I would have described this as the worst season of my Chelsea career. But things change in a second in football. Back in the 2008 Champions League final I hit the post just before extra-time. I ended up being sent off and we lost on penalties. This year, two minutes from the end, I scored a header and, from the worst season, it became the best ever."
There have been plenty of frenzied highs and desperate lows in the past eight years, enjoyed or endured under seven different managers, with the feats of his first and last coaches drawing particular praise. "The man who gave me strength was José [Mourinho]," he said. "He gave me this winning attitude, this desire to make history. He's a winner and we have it in our DNA now. It would have been nice to have won the Champions League for him but this European Cup is for all the managers who have chased this trophy with us.
"Then there is the manager [Roberto Di Matteo] who spent the least time in charge but is the one who won the Champions League. He is a Chelsea legend and the job he's done has been exceptional. The way he changed the attitude and mentality of the players is enormous because we were not in good shape mentally. That's why I always say communication is important. You can put a player on the pitch and give him 30 games but, if he doesn't feel the belief or communication is right, he will never perform. Bobby told us we had to do everything to save our season. Everybody had to look at himself and change the way he behaved and his attitude for the good of the group."
What made that mid-season slump even harder to accept was that André Villas-Boas, whose tenure unravelled after barely nine months, was "a friend". "It feels strange that he's gone and didn't give to Chelsea what he really wanted to. We are all responsible for this – the players, the club, the team."
If those toils arguably represented the team's most traumatic experience, then there have been personal stutters as well, from life on the fringe under Luiz Felipe Scolari to his infamous reaction to elimination by Barcelona in the 2009 semi-finals and the performance of the Norwegian official, Tom Henning Ovrebo.
"I feel bad as, in a way, it was because of me that people speak about this guy, Ovrebo, and it was a bit difficult for him after that game. And it is only football. Sometimes we attach too much importance to it, as I did that day. I had something in my head – I wanted to win so much that, when it went wrong, emotions got the better of me. With Scolari, there were a few moments in my head when I thought I would have to leave, but I wasn't mad with him. I'm a professional. I always respect a manager's decision. I can be upset, but it's with me: if I'm not performing or on the bench. But I respect the manager's job and he decides whether a player is good or not. I have learned a lot from all these managers."
Management may be a role to consider for the future – "I would come back and cut the grass here if they asked me to" – but, for now, it is memories of a giddy last month as a Chelsea player that dominate. He reflects with surprise at suggestions of theatrics against Barcelona in the Champions League semi-final. "Anyone who has played in that position as a lone striker will understand why I was on the floor so many times," he says. "But, in the end, our desire was stronger than Barca's qualities. That's why we won.
"When it came to the final, and the last penalty, I knew we'd done it. Walking up it was like there were green lights everywhere. Petr [Cech] had saved three penalties so, for me, it was ours. I knew. I've felt more 40 than 24 for the last few days but I can be proud of myself. I'm just happy that I had the chance to make a difference.
"The expectation at this club now, and from the owner, will be to repeat Saturday. We've set something up and people coming here will have to try, as a minimum, to get into more Champions League finals or even win it. That's what the club has to do to be a Barcelona, AC Milan or Real Madrid. We have one Champions League and we need more."
Any further successes in Europe will be achieved with the Ivorian on the outside looking fondly in. The last eight years have been momentous. Now Drogba is moving on. Read More
انسخ الكود التالى و ضعه فى موقعك او مدونتك.
