Didier Drogba Going Knee-First into Club vs Country Showdown

Ah, the African Cup of Nations. Not only is it joyous to watch, it’s even more joyous to see all the rich European teams squirm as they come to terms with losing their star African players. And none of them are squirming quite like Chelsea right now. See, Chelsea need Didier Drogba. They need him bad. Because if he’s not playing then Chelsea have to rely on £30 million misfit Andriy Shevchenko for goals, and that’s not good. Drogba is suffering from degeneration of the meniscus, which I think translates as a dodgy knee, and is going to require surgery. But his post-surgery return date means he could be ready to play for Ivory Coast in the African Cup of Nations (which begins January 20th) so now Chelsea are stalling.

They don’t want to lose him to the African Cup of Nations for a month, but they especially don’t want to lose him to surgery for a month and then to the ACN for another month, especially if there’s a risk of him re-injuring that knee. So it seems like they’re hoping to put the surgery off long enough that he won’t be recovered in time to play for Ivory Coast in Ghana.

But Drogba wants to play. Ivory Coast have a shot at winning the ACN, more so if they can field arguably the best striker in the world. And Chelsea need to keep Drogba happy. He’s already stated his intention to leave Stamford Bridge this summer (the famous “something is broken at Chelsea” speech) so their hopes of keeping him depend on keeping him sweet. And to do that they’re going to have to swallow their pride and get on board with Drogba’s ambition to play for Ivory Coast next month.

And this is brilliant. For too long, European clubs have grumbled and denigrated the ACN as a pain in the arse in the middle of the season, and these managers are never going to show the ACN the proper respect unless it’s in their own interests. But that’s slowly changing as African players become more important. Now that the likes of Drogba are demanding to play in the ACN it completely changes the game. Because the superstar status of Drogba and others not only enhances the marketability of the tournament itself, but also the respect that teams are forced to show the ACN in order to stay onside with their big name players.

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