Atletico de Kolkata, the champion of inaugural Indian Super League (ISL), have offered a huge sum for Chelsea legend Didier Drogba, but bad news is that the Ivory Coast star chose to play his trade in Major League Soccer team Montreal, where he can speak his native language French.
Sports PR Company, which managed Didier Drogba, Michael Essien, Theo Walcott, Petr Cech, Salomon Kalou, David James, Asmir Begovic & Marouane Fellaini confirmed the news of offer in a tweet message.
London Evening Standard reported that Drogba was approached by ATK and was offered $1 million plus bonuses offer. The offer was given by Atletico Madrid as a partner of ATK.
“ATK asked me to enquire about Drogba as an intermediary, but it seems that the offer won’t get accepted. His representatives have seen the offer but have not responded at all. Looks like the MLS is a likely destination,” a UK based football agent Baljit Rihal said.
An agent based in India also confirmed the link — but Drogba is probably too big a player to play in India at this point — and the MLS is the preferred destination for players who have a few years left in them: Andrea Pirlo, David Villa, Kaka, Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard moved to the states while the now-retired David Beckham and Thierry Henry also chose the States over other offers from Europe.
“The Chicago Fire have increased their contract offer to former Chelsea striker Didier Drogba, a source with knowledge of negotiations said on Tuesday,” an ESPN FC report said.
ISL clubs may miss out on a name like Drogba today — but at least this shows some sort of ambition on the part of club owners to aim for top names — irrespective of his age, the striker is a PR machine in himself — someone who enjoys legendary status among Indian football fans because of his goals being beamed in India over the last decade.