Didier Drogba Voted The Best African Player Of All-Time

Didier Drogba has been voted the best African player in football history, beating the likes of Samuel Eto'o and Yaya Toure.

Ahead of the Africa Cup of Nations getting underway on Friday, SPORTbible decided to let the people have their say on who is the best footballer to hail from the continent.

Whittling it down to eight of the very best, two polls were posted on Twitter - with the top two from each group advancing to the final.

Drogba won his first poll by a landslide and then went on to beat Eto'o, Toure and Mo Salah in the final, garnering 51% of the 17,000 votes cast.

Eto'o, the only man to win back-to-back trebles with two different clubs, came second with 25% of the votes, with Toure coming in at third on 15% ahead of Mo Salah, who accrued 9%

Drogba moved from Marseille to Chelsea in a £24 million deal in 2004 and spent eight years with the club in his first stint, making over 200 appearances and scoring 100 times.

He won four Premier League titles, four FA Cups, three League Cups and the Champions League - thanks to his last-minute bullet header and winning penalty to win the most coveted prize in European club football on that memorable night in Munich.

With pace, power and precision, Drogba was the complete striker to have as your focal point. A two-time African Player of the Year and the highest-scoring African in the Premier League, he was the definition of a big game player and even caused former Arsenal defender Philippe Senderos to panic before matches against him.

Drogba was also highly prolific on the international stage, scoring a record-high 65 goals for the Ivory Coast after making his debut way back in 2002.

And off the pitch, Drogba has made a monumental difference. Not only in terms of his charity work but also pretty much ending the Cote d'Ivoire civil war with his plea for peace - an achievement that led to TIME magazine including the 41-year old in their list of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Is Drogba the best African footballer in history?

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Topics: Football News, Football

Josh Lawless

Josh is a sports journalist who specialises in football and wrestling. He has been published by Curzon Ashton FC, Late Tackle, Manchester City FC, The Mirror, Read Man City and Manchester Evening News. He provides coverage of professional wrestling and has interviewed some of the biggest names in the field - including the first UK interview with The Hardy Boyz after their return to WWE. He has never sported a pair of Lonsdale Slip-ons, contrary to reports.

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