Mar
16
Drogba crowned Best African Player
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Chelsea’s highly-rated Ivory Coast star Didier Drogba was crowned the 2009 CAF African Footballer of the year, an award that should really come to no surprise to anyone. Inter’s Eto and Manchester City’s Adebayor were also in the running, but few strikers on the planet have been as on-form this season as Drogba. From his hatricks in the Premiership, to his efforts in the Champions League to help Chelsea past the group stages, the 32 year-old striker has been in the form of his life.
The funny thing is that this is only his third award as top player in Africa, but in fact he was stripped from a previous one simply because he had a dispute with the national team and did not show up for the ceremony. Few would deny, however, that he has dominated African football for the past half a decade.
The only place where his skills could not help that much were, ironically, for the national team itself. Ivory Coast failed to reach the finals of the African Cup of Nations, and played so poorly that they sacked their coach, only a few months before the start of the World Cup. In any case, fans of the national team will be praying for him to have an injury-free final third of the season for Chelsea, because he really is their best hope for advancing. At the same time, Chelsea will be hoping he doesn’t burn himself out for the start of the next season.