Former Chelsea striker Didier Drogba has revealed that Luiz Felipe Scolari wanted to offload him during his stint as manager at Stamford Bridge.
The World Cup winning Brazilian coach arrived at Chelsea in the summer of 2008 amidst much fanfare, but after a bright start to his stint, he was sacked in February 2009 after a run of poor results.
However, during his short stay at Chelsea the Brazilian did try to change the playing squad and he was keen to offload a Chelsea legend during his stint at Stamford Bridge.
Drogba claimed that the former Brazil coach indicated that he wanted him out of the club and only personal assurances from Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich pacified him during those trying months.
The striker wrote in his autobiography, quoted by Portuguese sports daily Record: “When I left after the meeting with Scolari, the first thing I did was to call Abramovich, through one of his aides, and explained what was going on."
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Drogba claimed that the Chelsea owner said: “No, you are not going anywhere. Who said you are going to leave.”
Not selling Drogba turned out to be a good decision on the Chelsea owner’s part as the Ivorian went on to add to his collection of trophies at Stamford Bridge and famously scored the late equaliser against Bayern Munich in the Champions League final in 2012, which they eventually won on penalties.
Scolari returned for another stint with Brazil in 2012, but had to leave in ignominy as they were hammered 7-1 by Germany in the semi-final of last year’s World Cup. He is currently in charge of Chinese outfit Guangzhou Evergrande.
