It's Black History Month. And to honour it I present you one of the best forwards to ever graced the Premier League. The highest scoring foreign player in Chelsea’s histoy: Didier “the king” Drogba. We all know what the Ivory Coast born player did in Chelsea. He helped the team win Premier leagues, FA cups, and many other throphies. He also scored the decisive penalty in the Champions league final against Bayern to win Chelsea’s only Champions league trophy. But the most impressive thing about him is his charity foundation and his ability to stop the war in his country.
At the end of 2005 when Ivory Coast beat Sudan to qualify for the 2006 World cup. But the country was torn by political and religious tension. Drogba took the cameras to the dressing room and made a plea to the both sides of the civil war to lay down their guns and stop the fire. The man spoke and the nation listened. As a result the elections few months after the plea went peacefully. The disunion was still at place but the two sides were in peace with each other. The Ivorian FA even moved some of the games from the African cup of nations qualifier from the capital Abidjan to the rebel’s stronghold Bouake. A move that confirmed the peace in the country. In a lot of interviews Drogba says that this is the biggest success in his career.
In the late 2009 he started the “Didier Drogba Foundation”. Through it he sponsored building a hospital in his home town of Abidjan, a health center for children and women, primary schools. He helped improving the Ivorian health care system, education and the equality between sexes. One of the main tasks of his foundation is to give equal rights to women. Voting, education, health care, work. His donations and work helped for the steady growth of the quality of live in the Ivory Coast.
He participates in almost every charitable football game across the globe. “Match against poverty”, “FIFA XI against Ebola”, teamed up U2’s Bono in for the World AIDS day. Drogba sponsors “Levallois Sporting Club”, the amateur club where he started his football career. He ensured their survival and helped them improve their stadium, sporting facilities. In his honour this stadium is now named “Stade Didier Drogba”.
The only thing about Drogba better than his football skills, is his selfishness and desire to help other people. Because of him the country is no longer shred by civil war, there are enough hospitals where the people in need can get enough help and women in the country have the same rights as men. As Ghandi once said: “There is enough on Earth for everybody’s need, but not for everyone’s greed.” If there were more people on the planet like Drogba our problems would be much less.