Drogba To Stay With Chelsea

Chelsea striker Didier Drogba says he wants to stay at Stamford Bridge despite rumours of a move to China.

The 33-year-old, who joined Chelsea in 2004, has been linked with Chinese club Shanghai Shenhua, where former Blues team-mate Nicolas Anelka now plays.

But Drogba told Tidesports source,: “I’m really happy where I am. I belong to Chelsea. For me, that’s what matters.

“Everyone knows I want to stay in blue and everybody knows I love the club and the fans.”

Anelka signed a two-year deal to play in the Chinese Super League in December. In his first news conference with his new club, the Frenchman said: “I hope Drogba will come. I’m in contact with him very often and if all goes well, we could see him in Shanghai.”

Drogba, who is 34 next month, arrived at Stamford Bridge from Marseille for a reported £24m and in his first season helped the team win the Premier League and League Cup.

The Ivory Coast international collected another Premier League winner’s medal the following season and has also won three FA Cups, another League Cup and a third league title with the Blues.

However, the club are without a trophy since their Premier League success in 2010 and have struggled to make headway in the league in Andre Villas-Boas’s first season at the helm.

Asked how he would improve the team’s fortunes, Drogba said: “I don’t know, I’m not the manager but I think all together we can find a solution.”

Through his charity – the Didier Drogba Foundation – the Chelsea striker is building a hospital in the Ivory Coast capital, Abidjan, and also plans to open clinics across the country. When a wall collapsed at the national football stadium in 2009, killing 19 people, he wanted to improve medical care in his country after he visited those who were injured. The hospital will cost £3m. The money, thus far, has come from his own pocket, the player donating all of his commercial endorsements.

Villas-Boas is the sixth manager Drogba has played under during his time at Stamford Bridge, with Jose Mourinho, Avram Grant, Luiz Felipe Scolari, Guus Hiddink, Carlo Ancelotti preceding him.

“You cannot compare Ancelotti with Jose Mourinho and you cannot compare Ancelotti with Villas-Boas,” Drogba said. “They all have their specific things and their qualities.”