Gloom turns to joy as Drogba enters game

PORT ELIZABETH - Gloom turned to joy for Ivory Coast supporters when talismanic striker Didier Drogba came on as a substitute in Tuesday’s football World Cup game against Portugal.

Les Elephants’ top scorer and captain failed to start the game after failing to recover sufficiently from breaking his arm in a June 4 friendly against Japan.

But he came on in the 66th minute after a lengthy warm-up on the sidelines which had garnered some of the loudest cheers of the game. But that was nothing to the roar that drowned out the vuvuzelas when he replaced Salomon Kalou upfront.

The fate of the iconic forward, who is one of the only footballers ever to make it to Time’s list of the 100 most influential people on the planet, had captivated not only his countrymen, but millions of Africans across the continent.

They were looking to Drogba to help lead the Ivory Coast to victory over Portugal and notch only the second win by an African team in the tournament so far. With other African superstars like Ghana’s Michael Essien and Nigeria’s Jon Obi Mikel already ruled out, the exclusion of the ultimate icon of African football would have been all the harder to take.

Though Drogba’s chances of participating so early in the tournament had been written off, he appeared to have the recuperative powers of a superhuman rather than a mere football superstar as he returned to training soon after an operation on his arm.

Every move and pronouncement of the Chelsea scorer was followed avidly. In Abidjan, hundreds of fans broke into spontaneous dances with the news that the Ivory Coast’s outstanding player, record scorer and captain had returned to training.

He has scored an impressive 44 goals in 68 matches for the national team. In England, he was the top scorer and helped propel Chelsea to the league title.

Yet, he still needed a special dispensation from FIFA Monday to wear a special protective cast.

After receiving the approval, it was the great man himself who decided to participate. “The only one who can say yes or no is the player,” coach Sven-Goran Eriksson had explained.