TNT Sports
France drools over Drogba
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Published 27/10/2003 at 12:32 GMT
Top scorer in the Champions League and also joint number one in the Ligue 1 goal-scoring chart, Didier Drogba has been the revelation of the early months of the French season. The 25-year-old Ivorian scored 16 goals for Guingamp in 2002/3 and has become
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Quick, with excellent anticipation and great ball skills, Drogba has scored five goals in the Champions League and seven league goals in 11 games.
On Saturday he was rested against Stade Rennes but came on as a substitute midway through the second half to score with a crisp volley as Marseille won 2-0.
"This guy has no fear, is physically very impressive and has excellent touch on the ball," said former France striker Stephane Guivarc'h who was with Drogba at Guingamp.
"If he stays focused, he could reach the highest level of international soccer."
Drogba, whose family live near Paris, is one of a flood of African players who have entered French league football to take the place of home-grown players lured abroad by big wages.
But he has had to be patient before earning his place in the top flight.
Unlike most professional footballers in France the Abidjan-born player did not come via a youth academy -- he played amateur football and was signed by Levallois when he was 14.
Guingamp turned him down before Drogba joined Le Mans as a professional in 1998.
He played over three seasons at Le Mans before joining Guingamp where his goal-scoring soon attracted the attention of Marseille.
The club have not won the league title since 1992 but their new-look frontline of Egyptian Mido, bought from Ajax Amsterdam, Drogba and former Fulham striker Steve Marlet has helped put them second in the league behind Monaco.
"I reached another level coming here and I feel I'm getting better and better," Drogba says. "Now I've got to learn to vary my game, try to find different ways of losing my markers and make them as scared of me as possible."
CALM PERSONA
As impressive as his goal-scoring has been his calm in the face of a media frenzy, which reached its peak after Drogba scored a hat-trick in a 3-0 Champions League win over Partizan Belgrade.
It was Drogba's first as a professional and the first by a Marseille player in a European game for a decade, and overnight he became the talisman of the Stade Velodrome fans.
Perhaps because of his rise via the amateur ranks and division two, Drogba is not letting the plaudits go to his head.
"I don't know what to say when I hear all these superlatives," he said after his hat-trick.
"This rise to prominence, it's not mine, and this victory, it wasn't all because of me. We must be ambitious while remaining as humble as possible -- then we can get somewhere."
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