Former Chelsea striker Didier Drogba will remain at the Major League Soccer side Montreal Impact, putting an end to speculation that he could return to West London in some capacity this season.
The forward, who struck the decisively penalty when Chelsea beat Bayern Munich to win the Champions League in 2012, had discussions with the club in December about returning to Stamford Bridge as part of interim manager Guus Hiddink’s coaching staff. Montreal said at the time that Drogba had a ‘desire to help’ his former club and that things were ‘out of our control’.
The 37-year-old refuted the notion that he was going to end his playing career at the time, taking to social media site Twitter to say, “I have not yet announced my retirement”. That seems to have been confirmed this week when he once again used social media and tweeted, “On way to Qatar to do some preparation work for pre-season”.
The Ivorian is contracted to Montreal until the end of this year and will almost certainly go on to see out said contract. He was the club’s top scorer last season when he netted 11 goals and helped them reach the Major League Soccer Eastern Conference semi-finals.