Chelsea striker Didier Drogba has opened himself up as 2008 comes to an end and has declared that he was on the verge of quitting football this year.
The Ivory Coast international football has had to suffer a number of injuries this year. Moreover, he also had to come to terms with the death of his grandmother.
Speaking to The Sun, the Chelsea star confessed:
“I was very, very close to her and it really made me suffer. I had the feeling that all my childhood memories were going with her. I became old suddenly.
“This made me ask a few questions to myself. I wondered what I was running after. I said to myself that it was pretty useless to run after results, stats or rewards.
“It’s true that I didn’t feel a great support. But that didn’t worry me really. For a few weeks I didn’t have my head tuned into football at all.
“I didn’t want to hear about targets or ambition. I felt totally switched off. For the first time, I had lost my passion for football. I was ordinary. I didn’t want to fight.
“All summer, I felt bad. I am not looking for excuses. I just admit that, for a while, I put football on the back-burner.
“I felt lonely when the season started in July. Everybody was obsessed with winning their place in the team.
“And I was stuck in the fitness room when the group left for a pre-season tour. I was alone with the machines.
“I didn’t really have anyone to talk to. Every year I have been losing a close friend.
“There was Geremi, then William Gallas, then Makelele. It’s a lot. I went through a big moment of loneliness.”
But thankfully for Chelsea, Drogba is now out of his blues and is hungry as ever for success. He concluded:
“I looked at my career. I was tired. But I have the conviction now that I can come back stronger. I am really hungry.
“What opened my eyes was the way some people at the club looked at me. I really felt confidence wasn’t the same.
“It wasn’t great to feel and I remarked that some of them didn’t really believe in my capacity to come back to the highest level. But I can’t be angry at them.
“They were right to wonder where the Drogba of 2007 was gone. He is very close! Now I am better in my body and head, everything will come back.”