Super pledge: Didier Drogba will donate £3m to
build a hospital in the Ivory Coast
In a remarkable show of charity, ferocious
Chelsea
striker Didier Drogba has pledged a £3million donation to
build a hospital. Drogba is handing over the fee he will receive
for becoming the new face of Pepsi.
Chelsea, his employers, should have been entitled to a cut from
his sponsorship fee as a result of an image rights clause in
Drogba's contract.
Sources close to the remarkable deal also claim there will be a
further generous donation by Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich in a
personal show of support for Drogba.
Sportsmail
understands Abramovich may even have offered to match the donation
pound for pound. The project in the Ivory Coast, Drogba's homeland,
will shock those who consider Drogba the unacceptable face of the
Barclays Premier League because of his aggressive demeanour, diving
antics and foul-mouthed rant in the Champions League last season
that saw him banned for three games by UEFA.
There is, however, another side to the prolific centre forward.
He launched the Didier Drogba Foundation two years ago, bought land
in his hometown of Abidjan and committed to raise funds to build a
hospital with the aim of opening the facility by the end of
2010.
He set up the Foundation after a close friend, Stefan, died from
leukaemia and the project gained momentum after 19 fans died and
132 people were injured when a wall collapsed in Abidjan's Felix
Houphouet-Boigny stadium before a World Cup qualifier between Ivory
Coast and Malawi in March.
The first aim of the Foundation is 'to build and fund a hospital
giving people basic healthcare and a chance just to stay alive'.
Later this month, the Didier Drogba Foundation Charity Ball will
take place at London's Dorchester Hotel and has already sold
out.
Changing man: Drogba will raise funds to improve
conditions in his homeland
Drogba, 31, will be the latest in a long line of global
stars from the worlds of sport, music and entertainment to
represent the soft drinks giant Pepsi.
David Beckham, 34, ended his 10-year association with Pepsi in
December last year. Brazilians Ronaldinho, Ronaldo and Roberto
Carlos, Barcelona's Lionel Messi and Thierry Henry, Arsenal's Cesc
Fabregas and Drogba's Chelsea team-mate Frank Lampard have also
featured in Pepsi television commercials.
For some, Drogba may seem an odd choice to follow in Beckham's
footsteps, but Drogba's charity work and role with the United
Nations sets him apart from other candidates.
In January 2007 he joined Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo and Maria
Sharapova as a UN Goodwill Ambassador and has since endorsed the
organisation's Millennium Development Goals project, aimed at
setting targets to try and halve world poverty by 2015.
The striker was the first Ivorian to be crowned African
Footballer of the Year in 2006.
