http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Didier-Drogba-c11044 to Chelsea
Neither Jean-Claude Dassier, nor Vincent Labrune have successfully managed to over shadow the achievements and charisma of Pape Diouf. The Chad-born Diouf was the president of Olympique de Marseille between 2004 and 2009 and during his tenure, Marseille
was at the heart of many heated arguments and controversies.
Though he has left, Diouf’s presence can still be felt at the Velodrome. What many people don’t know that it was Diouf who was the reason behind Didier Drogba’s arrival at the club. In the summer of 2003, Olympique de Marseille paid Guingamp 3.3. million
Pounds for the services of young Didier Drogba.
At that time, Drogba’s agent was Pape Diouf. While talking to the media, Diouf spoke of his history with the http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Chelsea-c38786 man and revealed that Drogba asked him twice to join Marseille in 2002 and 2004. However, on both occassions, the Ivorian met with Diouf’s
refusal.
“When I started to falter, I asked some friends if I could join a club with Drogba. Didier told me that he would stay at OM for one more season if I came.”
With Drogba happy at Marseille, his agent went on to become the club’s president. This meant that Diouf had little chance of acting as Drogba’s agent.
A few days after becoming the president, Diouf received a staggering offer for the striker from English Premier League side Chelsea.
However, Diouf maintains that he never wanted to sell his star player unless a crazy figure was on offer.
“When I arrived at the club, I immediately talked to the fans and they told me that they hoped Drogba won’t be sold. I told them that we do not sell unless we receive stupendous offers. Less than a week later, Christophe Bouchet tells me that http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Robert-c31222 Louis
Dreyfus has just received an offer of 30 million pounds for Drogba.”
However, Diouf maintains that he tried his best to keep hold of the Ivorian. In the end, after a night of negotiations, Diouf finally succumbed to Chelsea’s newly-acquired financial prowess and got 37 million Euros for a player who would then go on to win
the Premier League for the London giants.
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