SHANGHAI: Ivory Coast striker Didier Drogba was given a hero’s welcome as he arrived in China on Saturday to start a two-and-a-half year contract that is expected to make him one of football’s highest-paid players.
Hundreds of fans, many clad in “Drogba 11” shirts, greeted the former Chelsea star at Shanghai’s Pudong airport, some carrying bouquets of flowers and others brandishing his name in English on placards.
The 34-year-old has signed with Shanghai Shenhua on a deal that Chinese and British media have said is worth $314,000 a week, which would make him the highest-paid player in China and in the top bracket globally.
He is the latest in a fast-growing number of foreign stars to have been lured to China on enormous salaries that are typically funded by Chinese business titans.
Drogba will join French striker Nicolas Anelka, who signed with Shenhua in January on a deal believed to be nearly as high.
He and Anelka face an uphill battle to redeem their new club’s season. Half way through, Shanghai Shenhua sit just one point off the bottom of the 16-club Chinese Super League.
Drogba may be approaching the twilight of his career but he showed he is still a lethal striker with a match-winning role for Chelsea in the Champions League final in May.
The Ivorian said when the deal was signed last month that he was excited about coming to China.
Drogba scored 157 goals in 341 appearances for Chelsea after moving from Marseille in 2004.
The Chinese Football Association believes the domestic game is set to take off thanks to the infusion of expensive talent such as Drogba.
But critics say the money is wasted, with foreigners sometimes getting paid more than the rest of the players combined, while grassroots football is being ignored. (AFP)
