In what has been confirmed as his final season as a professional football player, 40-year-old Didier Drogba’s legend continues to grow in the Arizona desert.
This is now his second season at the club he part-owns, the Phoenix Rising FC of the USL (second-tier in the United States), and he is not only still making headlines and scoring goals, he’s literally doing things we’ve never seen before. And we don’t just mean shaving off all his hair.
On Saturday night, Phoenix were hosting ‘Los Dos’ (i.e. LA Galaxy’s B-team) in a southwestern rivalry match on a raucous $1-beer night at their home stadium, in front of a record crowd, even.
Trailing 3-2 with just 20 minutes remaining, Phoenix won a corner and up stepped Drogba to take it. One might wonder why Drogba’s taking corner kicks, but his own main concern was his sudden thirst. Fortunately, a pair of young fans (ball-boys?) were sitting at a table right by the flag behind the advertising hoardings (this isn’t uncommon in the USL) and one of them had a magic water bottle with him.
At least it must’ve been magic. Watch what happens:
Can confirm Drogba told the youngster that they would score on the corner. #RisingAsOne #ThirstyDrogba pic.twitter.com/jJxx0BN8xF
— Phoenix Rising FC (@PHXRisingFC) May 5, 2018
This might be the greatest Drogba highlight since May 19, 2012.
WHAT’S IN THE WATER!!?!, screams the announcer.
Magic, my friend. Just a bit of Drogba magic. As per the official tweet, Drogba indeed “told the youngster that they would score on the corner”.
Legend.
Seven minutes later, Drogba scored the winning goal from a penalty — a carbon copy of his winning kick in Munich (see 4:27 mark of highlights below) — and Phoenix collected all three points with the 4-3 victory. It was his second goal in three games this season.
Miss you, Didier.