New deal for DidierFriday, Nov 03, 2006
Didier Drogba has this afternoon signed a new four-year contract.
The 28 year-old striker put pen to paper at Cobham on the new deal that will extend his stay at Chelsea to six seasons.
Originally signed from Marseille in 2004, the scorer of Chelsea’s late equaliser in Barcelona on Tuesday is in his best form since moving to England. He has five Premiership goals from nine starts and one sub appearance this season and is joint top scorer in the Champions League, also with five goals.
‘I am not playing well just because I wanted to sign a new contract,’ Drogba told Chelsea TV immediately after signing.
‘I am playing well because I feel good and I am happy to train with my friends. I want to say thank you to José for believing in me since the beginning and now we will be together for a long time. The best period of my career I think.
‘I am happy because when I came here it wasn’t easy for me to say I would be signing a new contract with Chelsea, because everybody knows the first year was difficult.
‘The second one was okay but I knew I could do better.’
His pleased manager, José Mourinho added: ‘It’s good for Didier and it’s good for Chelsea. Chelsea deserved Didier to stay, Didier deserved Chelsea to give him a new contract.
‘Now he can go shopping in Milan and nobody says he goes to Milan to sign a contract.
‘Now his friend from Olympique Lyon can call him and people don’t say he calls him to sign him because it is a four-year contract and he stays here with Chelsea. That is fantastic.’
Chief executive Peter Kenyon said: ‘I’m delighted we have reached an agreement. Didier is a great member of the squad and he has a really allegiance with the supporters. He is the one that waves his arms and gets the fans chanting for the team.
‘He is a big character and he is a big players and I think it will send some reverberations around Europe that we have retained one of the best strikers in Europe.’