Didier Drogba has revealed the Jose Mourinho pep talk which convinced him to stay at Chelsea beyond a difficult debut season.
The Ivory Coast international, who announced his retirement from football on Wednesday evening, scored 10 Premier League goals in 18 starts during his maiden season at Stamford Bridge and despite winning the league title started dreaming of a return to Marseille.
Of course, Drogba remained at Chelsea and went on to win three more Premier League titles, four FA Cups, three League Cups and a famous Champions League crown - but it could have been so different.
An inspiring speech from Mourinho in 2005 stopped Drogba in his tracks as he considered heading for the exit door, prompting the striker to make a U-turn that changed the course of Chelsea's history and shaped him into one of the finest forward's of the Premier League era.
“There was a time after the first season I was looking for that comfort zone, which means going back to Marseille to be the only striker with the team playing for you," he said.
“And then I heard Mourinho saying something really interesting to me and the team. He was talking about the players. He was saying, ‘You know, if you want to be the only king, then go back to the team that you were playing and scoring for. Go back there.
“‘But here, there’s 22 kings. So you accept it, work together, or you go — go back to where you came from and be the only king where everybody is behind you.’
“I understood it. For me, this is the challenge I was expecting and I had done that with Marseille already. Now I had arrived at a team where even the centre-back had scored 10 or 15 goals in the season. Suddenly I thought, ‘Wow, where is my place here?’
“I knew I needed to improve and that’s what really challenged me and it’s why I became the player that I was.”
