Didier Drogba was tonight crowned African Footballer of the Year for the second time. The Ivory Coast striker saw off competition from his Chelsea team-mate Michael Essien of Ghana and the Cameroon forward Samuel Eto'o, now at Internazionale, to take the prize at the awards ceremony in Accra.

Drogba, who turned 32 on Wednesday and who has scored 25 goals this season, claimed the honour in 2006.on Saturday before facing Internazionale at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday in the second leg of their Champions League round-of-16 tie. Both games could be vital to the success of their season and Drogba, 32 today ,is hungry for more success."I still have the same passion for the game," he said earlier. "I still feel hungry and I am still chasing medals. I feel really good. As I have said in the past, it depends on the injuries you get and this season I can say that I am lucky or I can say that the few months that I took out last year to get my knee well are now paying off. I feel like a kid when I am on the pitch, so sometimes Carlo Ancelotti has to pull me back."

Drogba's resurgence began under the interim manager Guus Hiddink as Chelsea won the FA Cup last season and his goalscoring form has continued under Ancelotti. But the Ivorian says the Italian has done nothing spectacular – apart from make him happy. "There is not really a big difference in the way Carlo Ancelotti manages me compared with past managers," said Drogba. "They all know my strengths and my weakness and they all give me help to improve those, but especially now they put everything around me that I need to score goals or to be important for the team. That is what really makes me feel happy."

"We have a lot of games coming and big games too, so I don't want to bring bad luck by talking about if we win but this season so far has been really good for me," he added. "Even when I came back from the Africa Cup of Nations Cup, it was good. I really thought that I was going to be tired and it was going to be difficult for me to come back. It was, but for a different reason – because Ivory Coast had been knocked out of the competition – but it was also good to be back at Chelsea and scoring again straight away."

In a season that has been dominated by headlines concerning the off-the-field behaviour of both John Terry and Ashley Cole, Drogba's leadership in the dressing room has come to the fore.

"You can be a leader on the pitch, you can be a leader in the dressing room," he said. "There are different kinds of leadership and maybe I do speak when I feel it is important to.

"When you speak, after that you have to go out on the pitch and show and prove it. That is how people respect you and I think that is how you become a leader." .

Chelsea have opened contract negotiations with Michael Ballack in an attempt to secure the midfielder's services for at least another year. The Germany captain, who returns from a one-match suspension against West Ham United tomorrow, continues to be considered by the manager Carlo Ancelotti as an influential figure in the squad.

The 33-year-old Ballack's representatives held talks with the club's hierarchy earlier this week, although an agreement in such matters is rarely swift. The development follows moves by Chelsea to tie their striker Nicolas Anelka to a longer-term deal at Stamford Bridge.