Me that he exists’

‘It was a difficult year, at Chelsea, and I was like, I’m not happy here, maybe I should go’

Drogba said: “It was a difficult year, coming to Chelsea, and I was like ‘I’m not happy here, maybe it’s not for me and maybe I need to go’. But he was saying ‘No, you have to stay, I will help you, you must stay’.

“I was looking for that comfort zone, which means going back to Marseille, which means being the only striker and the team is playing for you.

“Then I heard Mourinho say something really interesting to the whole team. He was saying ‘You know what, if you want to be the only king then go back to the team that you were playing for, scoring 100 goals or so. But here, there’s 22 kings. So. you accept it, work together or you go. Go back to where you came from where everybody is behind you’.

“Suddenly I thought ‘wow’. I knew I needed to improve and that’s what challenged me, and it’s why I became the player I was.”

Drogba added another two trophies to the 10 he won during his first eight years at Chelsea when he returned for a season in 2014. Before his Stamford Bridge comeback, he inspired Galatasaray to League, Turkish Cup and Super Cup success.

He retired from international football four years ago as the top scorer and former captain of the Ivory Coast, who he helped qualify for the World Cup for the first time in their history in 2006. It was following that qualification that Drogba was credited with playing a role in the nation’s ceasefire after five years of civil war.

Having finished his playing career at Phoenix Rising, with the club reaching their first play-offs by winning the American Western Conference, Drogba has not yet decided where the next stage of his life will take him. He will base himself in London and consider whether to move into management while continuing work with his Foundation that has opened its first school and launched a mobile clinic this year in the Ivory Coast.

Asked how Albert, now aged 72, responded to the news he would be announcing his retirement, Drogba said: “C’est bon mon fils, c’est bon. Ah, it’s good my son, it’s good.”