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The turning point in the Montreal Impact’s 2016 Major League Soccer season came on Oct. 16 at Saputo Stadium.

That was the day head coach Mauro Biello told Didier Drogba he would no longer be in the starting 11 and the star striker from the Ivory Coast decided he wouldn’t even dress for the game, leaving Saputo Stadium in a huff.

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The Impact battled Toronto FC to a 2-2 tie that day in what might have been their best game of the regular season and clinched a playoff spot for the second straight year and the third time since entering MLS in 2012. With a playoff spot clinched, the Impact lost their next game 3-0 to the New England Revolution and then won four straight playoff games — with Drogba relegated to a substitute role — before losing to Toronto FC in overtime in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference final.

Drogba was the best thing to happen to the Impact when he arrived in Montreal in July 2015 to a hero’s welcome at Trudeau Airport and then scored 11 goals in 11 regular-season games. But it seemed clear right from the beginning of 2016 that Drogba didn’t really want to be back in Montreal.