Chelsea confirm Drogba to depart
442 Staff - Tuesday 22 May 2012, 15:16
Didier Drogba brought down the
curtain on a trophy-laden career at Chelsea on Tuesday when he
announced he would be leaving the club after eight years in West
London.
The Ivory Coast striker will leave when his contract expires
at the end of June and is now odds-on to follow his former team-mate Nicolas Anelka to China.
He leaves the club on a high after a starring role in
Saturday's Champions League final when he scored an emphatic
late headed equaliser before coolly slotting home the decisive
penalty in the shootout.
It capped a glittering period at Stamford Bridge where he
also won three Premier League titles, four FA Cups and two
League Cups.
"I wanted to put an end to all the speculation and confirm
that I am leaving Chelsea," Drogba said on the club website.
"It has been a very difficult decision for me to make and I
am very proud of what we have achieved but the time is right for
a new challenge for me."
Drogba, 34, joined Chelsea from Olympique Marseille in 2004.
His menacing physicality was ideally suited to the fast-paced
hubbub of the Premier League.
He found goals easy to get, scoring 157 times in 341
appearances, making him the club's fourth all-time leading
scorer, while his 34 European goals are a Chelsea record.
He won the Premier League Golden Boot twice, most recently
in 2010, but his Chelsea career appeared to be coming to an end
when the club signed Fernando Torres for a British record fee of
50 million pounds in January 2011.
Former manager Andre Villas-Boas tried unsuccessfully to
re-invigorate his team by phasing out Chelsea's older players,
with Drogba and midfielder Frank Lampard his principal victims.
The Ivorian striker frequently found himself sidelined to
accommodate a below-par Torres who struggled to make an impact
following his big-money move.
The departure of Villas-Boas, however, led to a renaissance
for Chelsea's 'old guard' who helped to propel the club to a
golden finale in which Drogba featured prominently.
On top of his Champions League heroics, he also scored in
the FA Cup final as Chelsea beat Liverpool at Wembley.
"Didier is undoubtedly a Chelsea legend and will always be
part of the Chelsea family," Chelsea chief executive Ron Gourlay
said.
"He is certainly leaving on a high after Saturday night but
he feels the time is right for a new challenge.
"We have known for some time that this outcome was likely but
Didier and the club only made a final decision on that in the
last couple of days, because for obvious reasons neither Didier
nor the club wanted to distract focus away from the Champions
League final.
"The talks were amicable all the way through and we wish him
all the best for the future. He is welcome back to Stamford
Bridge at any time - either as a player or as a guest of ours."
Drogba has been linked with a move to Chinese club Shanghai
Shenhua where he would join up with former Chelsea team-mate
Anelka who left Stamford Bridge in January.