When thinking about overseas players who have come to the Premier League and made an impact, the likes of N’Golo Kante, Eden Hazard and Gianfranco Zola may come to mind.
What do they have in common? All three made a name for themselves at Chelsea but there is one player who many consider greater than the lot – that player is none other than Didier Drogba.
He was a total goalscoring machine and former Chelsea midfielder and boss Ruud Gullit, the first foreign manager to ever win the FA Cup, has recognised the impact he made on his generation of football.
Speaking to the Premier League Show on BBC, as cited by football.london, Gullit brought up Drogba’s name during a debate over the greatest from overseas in the Premier League era:
The player who stands out is [Didier] Drogba. He won the Champions League for them in the final in 2012, with the header in normal time and the decisive penalty in the shootout – that was the icing on the cake. The influence and power that he had on Chelsea, he was a presence and he scored goals.
The Ivorian legend scored 157 goals in 341 games during an eight-year stint at Stamford Bridge between 2004 and 2012, as well as seven more when he returned for the 2014-15 season.
Alan Shearer and Chris Sutton, two impressive ex-Premier League strikers in their own right, were also on the show and praised Drogba for his ability to hold up the ball, bringing team-mates into play and his undoubted strength and pace.
Gullit’s argument wasn’t successful though, as Drogba was pipped to the post in the debate by Arsenal great Thierry Henry, but what a striker he was.
