The Drog

With the World Cup fast approaching lets take a look at some of the players who may prove to be the stars of the tournament. First up it's Didier "The Drog" Drogba.

When Drogba first arrived at Chelsea in July 2004 for a fee of £24m it was fair to say that many asked if he was worth that price. Indeed at first it was hard to see anything special about the man from the Ivory Coast.

But after two solid if not outstanding seasons Drogba's third campaign for Chelsea in the '06/'07 saw him score 33 goals in all competitions and finish two scorer in the league. He'd begun to show what he could do with his combination of pace and power; quick to the ball and almost impossible to force off it once he had under control.

A couple of quieter seasons followed as Drogba felt the loss of Mourinho from the club more the most and fell foul to ongoing injury concerns the season after. However in this last season he has once gain regained form and terrorised opponents with a goal haul of 37 in all with an impressive 29 in the league to once again take the Golden Boot.

Yes, he can be petulant and moody (as demonstrated by on his on pitch tantrums and occasional mad moments like that against Barca) but on his day and on his game he appears to be simply unplayable for opponents, able to simply brute force his way to goal, hit screamers from distance (see those FA cup final efforts this year) or trick his way through.

But crucially he is more than a goal scorer, his ability to hold the ball and bring teammates into play can prove vital in close games. It's telling that if you tell people they can have one out of Drogba, Rooney or Torres in their team I find most people will pick the twice African Footballer of the year.

Ivory Coast have a number of good players but if they are to make real progress it will be Drogba that will be the fulcrum and it's his passion that might well steer them through Group G's 'group of death'.