• Super League side have already signed Nicolas Anelka
• Shenhua to offer Drogba £270,000 per week three-year-deal
Shanghai Shenhua are increasingly confident of making Didier Drogba the latest eye-catching arrival in the Chinese Super League next summer under freedom of contract in a move that would end the Ivory Coast striker’s glittering eight-year stay with Chelsea.
Talks between Drogba and Chelsea over a new deal have been at an impasse for some time, with the 33-year-old seeking a two-year package to remain at Stamford Bridge. Chelsea, conscious of the player’s age, had been willing to offer only a 12-month extension to his contract, which expires at the end of June. Although the club’s manager, André Villas-Boas, intends to utilise the forward upon his return from the Africa Cup of Nations, a parting of the ways in the summer has long felt likely.
Chelsea will therefore resist any attempt by Shanghai Shenhua to secure the player in the midwinter transfer window but they are helpless to prevent Drogba negotiating terms with a foreign club over a move in the summer.
Asked whether he was concerned that Shanghai may be speaking with the player, Villas-Boas said: “It’s not something that has crossed my mind. I count on Didier, on what he represents as a player and an icon, and I will rely upon him still [when he returns from the tournament in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea next month].”
Shenhua, who signed Drogba’s former Chelsea team-mate Nicolas Anelka this month, are confident they will entice the Ivorian with a salary of around £270,000 a week and the promise of a three-year deal, with a pre-contract agreement between both parties edging ever closer. That salary would eclipse the reported offer of £200,000 a week made to Drogba by the Chinese Super League club Dalian Aerbin this month, a wage similar to that accepted by Anelka, and underlines Shenhua’s desire to make Drogba a figurehead for an emerging and wealthy league.
Shenhua finished 11th out of 16 teams in the Chinese league last season but intend to recruit heavily under the former France international and Fulham manager Jean Tigana.
Shenhua have gone public with their interest in Drogba in recent days, with the club’s chairman, Zhu Jun, claiming the talks with the striker’s representatives were “like flirting with a girl: perhaps she will resist you at first, but if you continue to ask her out, it always ends well. Never give up.”
Drogba’s move would disappoint his former club Marseille, who hoped the forward would end his playing days at the Stade Vélodrome. The Abidjan-born forward moved to Chelsea from the French club for around £24m in 2004 and has won three Premier League titles, three FA Cups and two League Cups with the Londoners. His goal against Aston Villa on New Year’s Eve was his 150th for the club in 333 appearances.
Didier DrogbaChelseaTransfer windowDominic Fifield
guardian.co.uk
