Drogba pledges £3m to build a hospital in his homeland
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Chelsea striker Didier Drogba pledges £3m to build a hospital in his Ivory Coast homeland
Super pledge: Didier Drogba will donate £3m to build a hospital in the Ivory Coast
In a remarkable show of charity, ferocious Chelsea striker Didier Drogba has pledged a £3million donation to build a hospital. Drogba is handing over the fee he will receive for becoming the new face of Pepsi.
Chelsea, his employers, should have been entitled to a cut from his sponsorship fee as a result of an image rights clause in Drogba's contract.
Sources close to the remarkable deal also claim there will be a further generous donation by Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich in a personal show of support for Drogba.
Sportsmail understands Abramovich may even have offered to match the donation pound for pound. The project in the Ivory Coast, Drogba's homeland, will shock those who consider Drogba the unacceptable face of the Barclays Premier League because of his aggressive demeanour, diving antics and foul-mouthed rant in the Champions League last season that saw him banned for three games by UEFA.
There is, however, another side to the prolific centre forward. He launched the Didier Drogba Foundation two years ago, bought land in his hometown of Abidjan and committed to raise funds to build a hospital with the aim of opening the facility by the end of 2010.
He set up the Foundation after a close friend, Stefan, died from leukaemia and the project gained momentum after 19 fans died and 132 people were injured when a wall collapsed in Abidjan's Felix Houphouet-Boigny stadium before a World Cup qualifier between Ivory Coast and Malawi in March.
The first aim of the Foundation is 'to build and fund a hospital giving people basic healthcare and a chance just to stay alive'. Later this month, the Didier Drogba Foundation Charity Ball will take place at London's Dorchester Hotel and has already sold out.
Changing man: Drogba will raise funds to improve conditions in his homeland
Drogba, 31, will be the latest in a long line of global stars from the worlds of sport, music and entertainment to represent the soft drinks giant Pepsi.
David Beckham, 34, ended his 10-year association with Pepsi in December last year. Brazilians Ronaldinho, Ronaldo and Roberto Carlos, Barcelona's Lionel Messi and Thierry Henry, Arsenal's Cesc Fabregas and Drogba's Chelsea team-mate Frank Lampard have also featured in Pepsi television commercials.
For some, Drogba may seem an odd choice to follow in Beckham's footsteps, but Drogba's charity work and role with the United Nations sets him apart from other candidates.
In January 2007 he joined Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo and Maria Sharapova as a UN Goodwill Ambassador and has since endorsed the organisation's Millennium Development Goals project, aimed at setting targets to try and halve world poverty by 2015.
The striker was the first Ivorian to be crowned African Footballer of the Year in 2006.
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that's a good deed
