Didier Drogba: The season at Marseille that made me

After impressing during his stint with EA Guingamp, Didier Drogba would embark down south to join Olympique de Marseille for the 2003-2004 season. It was a decision that would become the launchpad for a legendary career with the Ligue 1 McDonald's club domestically and especially in European football. The Ivory Coast international spoke with Marseille's official club website in July to recount the memories of a special first season with the Phocéen club.

"My best memory at Marseille? I would have to say it's the day I signed my contract, for me it was dreaming that was coming to fruition - afterwards for sure there was the legendary run in the UEFA Cup but also matches in the Champions League," said the former OM man, sat at Marseille's Petit Nice Passedet restaurant which overlooks the bay of the city and the rising Calanques national park behind it. "There's so many memories so I prefer to just sum it all up in the moment when I signed for the club because it allowed me to go on and have an exceptional season."

Drogba's beginnings at Marseille

"I had so much pressure at the start at the Vélodrome because I wasn't playing well and I felt like a spectator," said Drogba on his beginnings at the club. "I was dazzled and amazed at what I was seeing from the supporters, the signing by so many people in a stadium with so much history which feels alive."

"So at every match around the 60th minute I would run out of breath. I would ask to come off because I couldn't do it. I had given everything by not being concentrated. But afterwards we managed to correct that."

The Marseille squad of 03-04 was full of personalities that have marked the history of French football in the 2000s. "It's true I got on well with Steve Marlet, with Habib Beye, with Mido we were together all the time," Drogba said of his teammates. "I love being in contact with others and getting to know my partners. So we got on well and we had a togetherness during my time there that went above the individual."

WATCH: Drogba's best moments with OM

A European run which ended in heartbreak

Domestically, Drogba got off the mark with a brace against OGC Nice in September, before scoring a hat-trick in the Champions League group stage against FK Partizan Belgrade (his first goals in European competition).

The Ivory Coast went on to establish himself that season as one of the best strikers in Europe at the time, scoring 19 league goals - including a volley which was voted goal of the season at the UNFP awards, as well as 11 goals in the Champions League and UEFA Cup (now UEFA Europa League).

"You need to know I had never played teams the calibre of Liverpool and Inter Milan," said Drogba on the step-up to the Champions League. "Only a year and a half before I was playing in the second division. I was playing against players I was used to seeing on the TV: Steven Gerrard, Emile Heskey, Alan Shearer, Laurent Robert. I had the opportunity to show them what I was capable of."

"We had a great run, we beat teams like Liverpool who had a Ballon d'Or player in their side. I think we really did something exceptional. But it ended against Valencia, and that's a match I would like to play again."

But by the end of a legendary run, came heartbreak for Drogba and his teammates when OM would lose the 2004 final of the UEFA Cup against Valencia after managing to beat a strong Newcastle side in the semi-final.  "My worst memory wasn't actually the final," explained Drogba. "It was when I left the club, even if the defeat in the final made me feel something."

After scoring 32 goals in 55 matches for Les Olympiens, Drogba would go on to join José Mourinho at Chelsea where he would rack up 341 appearances for the Premier League side and become a legendary force during the 2000s and 2010s both at the domestic, European, and international level.

Photo Credit: Olympique de Marseille and Puma

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