English football has been blessed with quite a few big-game players down the years, the guy who always shows up when it really matters. Ian Rush scored five goals in three FA Cup finals for Liverpool, an all-time record. John Robertson played in two European Cup finals for Nottingham Forest, scoring the winner in one and setting up the winner in the other. Bobby Charlton scored the goals that sent his country to a World Cup final, and another two for his team in a European Cup final. Steven Gerrard has notched in every major club final possible. Eric Cantona’s FA Cup final report reads played two, took care of business in two. The same goes for Roberto di Matteo. Alan Kennedy decided two European Cup finals. As a self-confessed bog-standard left-back for Liverpool.



But none of these figures – legends all, in their many different ways – can hold a candle to Didier Drogba. The big Ivorian’s record in the biggest matches has been simply astonishing. Second to none. The ultimate big-game player.

So naturally, having said all that, we’re forced to report that Drogba’s first big game ended in failure. He was part of the Marseille team beaten 2-0 by Valencia in the 2004 Uefa Cup final. (He’d joined the French giants from Guingamp, having moved there in turn from Le Mans, where he’d been scouted by Arsene Wenger. The Arsenal boss passed, thinking the young man wasn’t quite ready. But we digress.)

There was no shame in Marseille’s 2-0 defeat that year, as Rafael Benitez’s side, newly crowned as Spanish champions, were arguably the best team in Europe at the time. And in any case, the campaign had been a personal success for Drogba, putting him on the European map. Marseille were competing in the Uefa Cup having been cashiered from the group stage of the Champions League, in which Drogba had scored against Real Madrid at the Bernabeu, helped himself to a hat-trick against Partizan Belgrade, and put one past parsimonious Porto, who went on to win the tournament under Jose Mourinho. Then in the Uefa Cup, Drogba was instrumental in dispatching Liverpool, Internazionale and Newcastle United on their run to the final.

Mourinho’s success at Porto had earned the Portuguese a move to Chelsea, and having been impressed by Drogba’s direct and skilful play at close quarters, he dangled $40m (£24m) in front of Marseille’s nose. Juventus were also interested, but Drogba plumped for Chelsea. It would prove an inspired choice. Drogba scored 16 goals in his first season at Stamford Bridge, helping the club to only the second English championship in their history, a cool 50 years after the first. He also put Chelsea ahead in extra-time of a tumultuous League Cup final with Liverpool, giving his team a lead they would never relinquish.

After which, scoring in cup finals became second nature to the big man. Drogba subsequently won three more league titles at Chelsea – as an integral part of the team in 2006 and 2010, and as a veteran earlier this year – but it’s the finals that really define him.

The 2007 League Cup final is mainly remembered these days for Abou Diaby kicking John Terry’s head clean over the big arch at Wembley, and an equally entertaining bench-emptying brawl during injury time. But it was Drogba whose two goals decided the destination of the trophy when a football match finally broke out. Chelsea completed a cup double that year, when Drogba won the FA Cup late on against Manchester United, exchanging passes with Frank Lampard on the edge of the United box before guiding the ball past a helpless Edwin van der Sar. A brilliant goal in a terrible game.

Chelsea’s Drogba celebrates scoring in extra time to win the FA Cup final in 2007. Photograph: Eddie Keogh/Reuters

There were no cups for Chelsea the following year, despite two finals being contested, but Drogba still proved an electric presence in both big games. The League Cup was lost to Tottenham Hotspur, even though Drogba had given his side the lead with a free-kick that made him the first player to score in three different League Cup finals. Drogba then eviscerated Liverpool in the semi-final of the Champions League, anger his fuel after Rafael Benitez had accused him in a pre-match press conference of diving. Two decisive goals were the inevitable result. Drogba had powered Chelsea to the final of Europe’s premier tournament for the first time ever.

That match, against Manchester United in Moscow, would not go to plan for Chelsea, culminating in what would be English football’s most famous slip for nearly six years, until Demba Ba did John Terry a solid. A tearful Terry became the symbol of the disappointment of losing to United on penalty skids, which kind of got Drogba off the hook. He was unlucky to hit the post in the second half of the match, but later disgraced himself, sent off in extra time for giving Nemanja Vidic a clip upside the head. He remains one of only two players to see red in a European Cup/Champions League final, Jens Lehmann of Arsenal the other, two years earlier. So Chelsea were denied the penalty-taking prowess of their top striker in the resulting shoot-out, and look what happened. Oh John! Oh Didier! Still, he’d make up for it later, and how.

Drogba should have had the chance to make amends the following season, but Chelsea were diddled by some preposterous refereeing decisions in the Champions League semi against Barcelona. The red mist descended when Andreas Iniesta scored an injury-time goal that sent Barca to the final instead of Chelsea. “It’s a fucking disgrace!” Drogba bellowed into a live television camera. He was banned for one European game, but it was worth it. What a glorious funk.

A little succour arrived in the FA Cup final against Everton. Chelsea had been shocked by the quickest-ever goal in the showpiece event’s history, a 25-second stunner from Louis Saha. But it was Drogba whose header midway through the first half settled Chelsea down, and they went on to win the match 2-1. The trophy was retained a year later against relegated Portsmouth, Drogba naturally with the only goal.

Two seasons later, Drogba scored what would prove to be the winner in a 2-1 victory in another FA Cup final, this time against Liverpool. Then the fairytale end, in Chelsea’s second Champions League final. The jig looked up against Bayern Munich, who were leading through Thomas Muller’s late goal, in their own Allianz Arena ground. Then Fernando Torres chased a lost cause down the right wing and made enough of a nuisance of himself to win a corner. Juan Mata took, and Drogba crashed a header home. The hero.

And then, so nearly, once again the extra-time zero. Drogba clumsily bundled over Franck Ribery to gift Bayern a penalty. But Arjen Robben wafted a risible effort straight at Petr Cech. The game went to a shoot-out, and Drogba sent Manuel Neuer the wrong way to seal the deal. Chelsea, who as champions had declined an invitation to play in the very first European Cup in 1955, had finally reached the summit. And it was Drogba – who else? – who hauled them up there. It was his last kick for the club. Or so it seemed at the time. What a way to go out.

Drogba left for Shanghai Shenhua, then rocked up at Galatasaray, where he won the league and – this is getting old – scored the only goal in the final of the Turkish Super Cup. He made an emotional and valedictory return to Chelsea, picking up that fourth league medal, though in truth the most memorable event of a brief remarriage was his chairing off the field in his final appearance in a blue shirt against Sunderland – with the match only half-an-hour old. And there’s Chelsea fans mocking Liverpudlians for being gloriously sentimental.

The thread of the big-game narrative frays slightly on the international stage. Ivory Coast were probably the best – certainly the most consistent – African team of the last couple of decades, but clutch results were hard to come by. Drogba did maintain his habit of delivering on the big stage – he scored against both Argentina and Brazil in World Cup matches – but also fluffed his lines in the African Cup of Nations. He missed a penalty in the 2006 final shootout against Egypt, then failed from the spot during the 2012 final against Zambia. Ivory Coast won the competition in 2015, but by this time Drogba had retired from international football.

Ah well, nobody’s perfect. But being the driving force behind Chelsea’s astonishing run of success between 2004 and 2012 more than compensates. Nationality ensures Terry and Lampard usually get the bulk of the credit with the English press, but let’s be honest with ourselves: when it came to taking care of business when it really mattered, Drogba was always the go-to guy. Chelsea’s main man in their golden era, and the biggest of big-game players.