10 Best Strikers Of The 21st Century
8. Didier Drogba
Total career goals: 362
It’s hard to understand how Didier Drogba, who’s a legitimate contender to be Chelsea’s greatest player of all time, only won their Player of the Year trophy once, in 2010.
Quick, able in the air and ruthless in front of goal as he may be, Drogba’s biggest qualities are his strength, toughness and die-hard attitude. The Premier League has had its fair share of powerful strikers, and Drogba has to be the pick of the bunch. Nemanja Vidić, no less, described him as “physically the hardest” opponent he played against, as he was “on you for the full game”. An opinion echoed by Carles Puyol, no less.
From 2005 to 2012, Chelsea’s attack was Drogba and the rest. He scored 15 goals in his first two seasons, winning the league with record-breaking point tallies of 91 and 95 points (but that arguably had more to do with their illustrious back four and goalkeeper). In 2007, Drogba won his first PL Golden Boot with 20 goals, netting 33 in all competitions, and reached fourth place for the Ballon d’Or (Chelsea’s Player of the Year that season? Michael Essien of course). He outdid himself in 2010, scoring his season-best 37 in all competitions and snatching his second PL Golden Boot. But obviously, that was all just foreplay before the big night.
Champions League final, 2008: Drogba doesn’t score, slaps Vidić (“physically the hardest”, we told you) and gets sent off. United would win in the shootout.
Champions League final, 2012: Drogba “pulls the rabbit out of the hat” in the dying minutes and scores the winning penalty to crown the Blues with their first ever CL title (Die-hard, we told you).
His career in orange and green is less venerable. Drogba, while being without question Ivory Coast’s best player ever and their all-time top scorer with 65 goals, never realized his dream of bringing silverware back home. In a display of cruel irony, the 2015 CAN, which came right after Drogba had claimed the dream was over for the Elephants' golden generation and hung his international boots up, saw his country win their first title in more than 20 years.