page_title: Didier Drogba
section_title: Personal life
hierarchical_section_title: Didier Drogba / Personal life
caption_attribution_description: Chelsea 6 Maribor 0 Champions League
context_page_description: Didier Yves Drogba Tébily is an Ivorian retired professional footballer who played as a striker. He is the all-time top scorer and former captain of the Ivory Coast national team. He is best known for his career at Chelsea, for whom he has scored more goals than any other foreign player and is currently the club's fourth highest goal scorer of all time. Widely regarded as one of Chelsea's greatest players, Drogba was named in the Chelsea team of the 2010–2020 decade by Chelsea's fans. He was named African Footballer of the Year twice, winning the accolade in 2006 and 2009.
  After playing in youth teams, Drogba made his professional debut aged 18 for Ligue 2 club Le Mans, and signed his first professional contract aged 21. After finishing the 2002–03 season with 17 goals in 34 appearances for Ligue 1 side Guingamp, he moved to Olympique de Marseille, where he finished as the third highest scorer in the 2003–04 season with 19 goals and helped the club reach the 2004 UEFA Cup Final.
  In July 2004, Drogba moved to Premier League club Chelsea for a club record £24 million fee, making him the most expensive Ivorian player in history.
context_section_description: Drogba is married to Lalla Diakité, a Malian woman whom he met in Paris, and the couple have three children together. His eldest son, Isaac, was born in France in 1999, grew up in England and has played in the Chelsea academy system. He signed for French club Guingamp in February 2018. Drogba has two younger brothers who are also footballers: Joël and Freddy Drogba. Freddy, born in 1992, joined French Ligue 1 side Dijon FCO, and played for the youth team. He is a devout Roman Catholic. His uncle, Michel Goba, is also a professional footballer and Ivorian international, and his cousin Kévin Goba (Michel's son) is a professional footballer who played in the lower leagues of France.
  Drogba is credited with playing a vital role in bringing peace to his country. After the Ivory Coast qualified for the 2006 World Cup, Drogba made a desperate plea to the combatants, asking them to lay down their arms, a plea which was answered with a cease fire after five years of civil war. Drogba later helped move an African Cup of Nations qualifier to the rebel stronghold of Bouake; a move that helped confirm the peace process. On 24 January 2007, Drogba was appointed by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) as a Goodwill Ambassador. The UNDP were impressed with his previous charity work and believed that his high profile would help raise awareness on African issues. In September 2011, Drogba joined the Truth, Reconciliation and Dialogue Commission as a representative to help return peace to his home nation. His involvement in the peace process led to Time magazine naming Drogba one of the world's 100 most influential people for 2010.
  Drogba's charity work continued when, in late 2009, he announced he would be donating the £3 million signing on fee for his endorsement of Pepsi for the construction of a hospital in his hometown of Abidjan. This work was done through Drogba's recently created "Didier Drogba Foundation" and Chelsea announced they too would donate the fee for the deal toward the Foundation's project. Drogba decided on building the hospital after a recent trip to the Ivorian capital's other hospitals, saying "... I decided the Foundation's first project should be to build and fund a hospital giving people basic healthcare and a chance just to stay alive." The same year, Drogba teamed up with sportswear company Nike (whom he is sponsored by) and U2 frontman Bono on the eve of World AIDS Day to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Drogba said, "It’s a big honour and pleasure for me to be linked with Bono and try to help him save some lives. AIDS and HIV is something that really destroyed Africa, and people don’t really realise how easy it is to save lives — only two pills a day, which is 40 cents."
  In November 2014, Drogba appeared in FIFA's "11 against Ebola" campaign with a selection of top football players from around the world, including Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar, Gareth Bale and Xavi. Under the slogan "Together, we can beat Ebola", FIFA's campaign was done in conjunction with the Confederation of African Football and health experts, with the players holding up eleven messages to raise awareness of the disease and ways to combat it. On 22 February 2018, Drogba, former AC Milan striker and current Liberia President George Weah, and teenage French prodigy Kylian Mbappé had a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron and FIFA President Gianni Infantino at the Élysée Palace in Paris that focused on a sports development project in Africa.
  As a UNDP Goodwill Ambassador, Drogba has taken part in the annual Match Against Poverty alongside Ronaldo and Zinedine Zidane. He has appeared in the 2012 and 2015 games. Levallois Sporting Club, the amateur club where Drogba began his career, used their percentage of his transfer fees  including £600,000 out of the £24 million paid when he joined Chelsea – first to ensure the club's survival, and then to improve their stadium to incorporate modern sports facilities for the benefit of the local community. They renamed the new stadium Stade Didier Drogba in his honour.
caption: Sponsored by Nike (he is pictured wearing Nike Mercurial Vapor boots), Drogba teamed up with Nike and U2 frontman Bono to support an AIDS charity.
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS 700D", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Snapseed 1.6.1.0", "Image DateTime": "2014:10:21 20:17:37", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "198", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "874", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "8840", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/250", "EXIF FNumber": "63/10", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Shutter Priority", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "1600", "EXIF SensitivityType": "Recommended Exposure Index", "EXIF RecommendedExposureIndex": "1600", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2014:10:21 20:17:37", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2014:10:21 20:17:37", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "8", "EXIF ApertureValue": "43/8", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "4/3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "300", "EXIF SubSecTime": "00", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "00", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "00", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2477", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "3715", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "202953/35", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "104201/18", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF LensSpecification": "[16, 300, 0, 0]", "EXIF LensModel": "TAMRON 16-300mm F/3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD B016", "EXIF LensSerialNumber": "0000000000"}