Didier Drogba's first month in China is being heralded as an unequivocal success, the powerful Ivory Coast striker earning rave reviews, the moniker "Devil Beast" and being compared to "a nuclear bomb". The 34-year-old became one of the world's highest-paid players when he swapped European Champions League winners Chelsea for the relative obscurity of the ambitious Shanghai Shenhua, in China's Super League.
Vocal in English football, Drogba has kept a low profile off the pitch since arriving in China to a hero's welcome in mid-July, insisting that his reported 200,000 pounds ($314,000) a week was not the main motivation. "China is a big sports country and it is a big challenge," said Drogba on his arrival, fresh from scoring the goal which won Chelsea the Champions League.
"For me it would have been easy to go to another team in Europe but I chose China because of the challenge." Drogba got off to a flying start at struggling Shenhua - then 12th in the 16-team Super League - scoring twice on his home debut in the 5-1 thrashing of long-time rivals Hangzhou Greentown and quickly earning the tag "Devil Beast". The fanatical home crowd, swelled from the usual 15,000 to 25,000, chanted the veteran's name repeatedly and gave him a rousing cheer as he performed the traditional post-match bow.
"Shenhua's nuclear bomb has arrived," Shanghai goalkeeper Wang Dalei said of his new team-mate, who joins another former Chelsea striker, Nicolas Anelka, at the club. Although Chinese teams have been luring a fast-expanding group of foreign stars to play for enormous salaries, Drogba is the highest paid and has quickly become a fan favourite, eclipsing Anelka. "We suddenly found out that football, which is very close to us, can be so thrilling, so touching and so good that you can't help but tremble," prominent football commentator Ji Yuyang wrote in the Oriental Sports Daily. Despite the plaudits, Drogba has had only a negligible effect on his team so far. He has not found the net since his double and Shenhua are still struggling, creeping up to 10th in the table.