2 - The Ivorian Pearl: The Life and Times of Didier Drogba

Abstract

The year 2010 saw South Africa staging the first football World Cup ever hosted by an African country at an estimated cost of $6 billion. As former South African president Thabo Mbeki – under whose leadership the World Cup bid was won – said: ‘We want to ensure that one day, historians will reflect upon the 2010 World Cup as a moment when Africa stood tall and resolutely turned the tide on centuries of poverty and conflict. We want to show that Africa’s time has come.’ Ivorian striker, Didier Yves Drogba, the reigning African footballer of the year, had similarly expressed his optimism in a 2008 autobiography, saying ‘I’d love to be the one lifting the Cup to the blue Johannesburg sky, proving I am an African at heart.’ The Ivorian pearl was keen to prove on the largest stage on the globe that the world was his oyster...