Drogba reunites with Chelsea: The only one to play 2 home matches

When the draw brought Chelsea to face Galatasaray in the round of 16 of the 2013/14 Champions League, Drogba answered the interview in a very short but emotional way. “I am the luckiest person in the world because both matches, I played at home”…

After so much glory with Chelsea, Drogba is now the biggest danger to The Blues' Champions League ambitions this season.

STAMFORD BRIDGE OLD ROOF

If one day soon, Juan Mata returns to Stamford Bridge in a MU shirt, Chelsea fans will surely stand up and give him the warmest applause. They understand that Mata did not intend to leave them, but that the times were like that so he had to.

But in just a few weeks, when Didier Drogba returns to Stamford Bridge with Galatasaray, Chelsea fans will give him an even more enthusiastic welcome, with banners bearing his name, banners expressing their nostalgia for him, despite the fact that he may score against Chelsea at the Turk Telecom Arena next Wednesday night.

Simply, in Chelsea's contemporary history, if there is a player who is most remembered and loved, that person must be Drogba, the player who brought Chelsea emotional moments and also experienced with them until the peak of his career.

If there is a moment that the “Stamford Bridge citizens” remember Drogba most, perhaps it is the almost final moment of his 8-year love affair with Chelsea. That was when he sealed the score for Chelsea 1-0 against Barca in the 2011/12 Champions League semi-final and then scored the equalizer for Chelsea against Bayern in the Champions League final.

And he bravely stepped up to take the penalty kick that "finished" the match, forcing the mighty Bayern Munich to wait another season to be able to return to the throne in their dream arena after 10 years.

At that moment, if Chelsea fans had a wish, they would definitely wish that on the coaching bench it was not Di Matteo but Mourinho. Simply put, if Mourinho is a living legend of contemporary Chelsea, then Drogba is the embodiment of that legend, a monument that lives forever.

The image (imagine it) of Mourinho rushing into the middle of the pitch to embrace a Drogba who was also rushing towards him would surely be a symbol of Chelsea's victory.

Chelsea fans dreamed of the Champions League with Mourinho but in the end, the one who won it for them was Drogba, in his final season, a season in which he almost exhausted himself for a goal that Chelsea had been pursuing since 2004, the year Mourinho joined.

AND THE HAUNT NAMED THE WILDERNESS

When Mourinho returned to Chelsea, Drogba was already a Galatasaray player and the first problem people posed to Mourinho was finding a copy of the Ivorian player. Everyone believed that Mourinho needed someone like Drogba for his winning formula.

Lukaku was considered a copy but Mourinho saw that the Belgian player lacked the toughness that Drogba had. He wanted someone with the authority of Drogba, the authority of a towering bronze statue of a demigod that would make even the most famous defenders fear him.

Drogba himself has proven his authority countless times, against many great opponents, the most typical and memorable example being the times he made Barca's Puyol sweat in the second leg of the 2011/12 Champions League semi-final.

And from Drogba, Mourinho chose Eto'o, a temporary choice. But perhaps, the more he watches Eto'o play, the more Mourinho will miss Drogba, the first days he joined him from Marseille and stuck with him through every ups and downs at Stamford Bridge.

In a few days, Mourinho will bring his troops to the Turk Telecom Arena and he will meet Drogba again, meet the obsession of Chelsea and himself. He needs someone like him but he is wearing a different shirt, to fight against him and his old teammates.

Drogba was emotional about meeting Chelsea again, to be sure, but he is not the type of person to let emotions get the best of him. He is a professional, so professional that he clearly sees his job as scoring against Chelsea, even if it means disappointing Mourinho, his former teammates, and his former owner Abramovich.

But if there is any disappointment, it is a bitter cup that the Russian owner must accept to drink. Drogba is still very fit, so even though he is no longer at his peak, he does not deserve to say goodbye to Chelsea after that surprisingly successful 2011/12 season.

When he moved to Shanghai Shenhua, everyone thought that his peak career was over. But his return to Europe, playing for Galatasaray, winning the Turkish championship in the 2012/13 season and eliminating Juventus in the 2013/14 Champions League, proved that he was still very useful.

He could have been a Giggs or Scholes type of Chelsea player, who finished his career at the club and then was favoured to be a part of the coaching staff later on. But Abramovich didn’t play that type of player. And it may be that decision that both he and Mourinho regret today, when Chelsea lack a penetrating striker like him and their defence is as wary of him as any top-flight defence.

STILL REMAINS IN LOVE

If Drogba had scored at both the Turk Telecom Arena and Stamford Bridge, it would have made Mourinho's heart ache. But Drogba is not insensitive. To him, Mourinho is not only an old friend but also a teacher with whom he owes a great debt of gratitude.

Mourinho once told Drogba very simply: "If you want to become a great player like Henry or Nistelrooy, you should come to England to play for me and Chelsea." Drogba realized after that persuasion that it was a reality.

He knew that in France at that time he was just a good striker, not a world-class player. And he made the right choice. With Mourinho, he became the most feared assassin, maximizing his outstanding strengths, asserting his position as the leader of the attack at Chelsea and being the desire of the greatest clubs every transfer season. For all of that, Drogba thanked Mourinho and he declared: "Therefore, with Jose, I can go to the end of this world".

But now he cannot go to the end of this world with that respected teacher. Simply, he and he are on two different fronts and the winner to continue the path of conquest is only one. The day of their reunion, perhaps, must be answered by time and if that day can come, it will be most wonderful if it happens right at Stamford Bridge, where they first brought inspiration to each other...

“When Chelsea wanted to take me away from Marseille, it was Mourinho who came to see me,” Drogba always remembers those first days of meeting. And he also did not hesitate to affirm that: “Jose Mourinho is the one who turned me into a world-class striker.”

According to Bongdaplus