Jose Mourinho says Didier Drogba “belongs” at Chelsea, as the striker considers returning to the club.
Drogba left Stamford Bridge after scoring the winning penalty in Chelsea’s only Champions League triumph against Bayern Munich in 2012.
He is available on a free transfer and the Portuguese boss says the club were nursing the intention of a prospective deal for the player, whom he first signed from Marseille for
£24m in July 2004.
“Because we know his heart is pushing him to where he feels he belongs, we are thinking about the possibility (of a deal). We feel that Didier belongs to us,” said Mourinho.
Mourinho, however, intimated that any decision would be made “in a non-emotional way”.
The 36-year-old won three Premier League titles, four FA Cups, two League Cups and a Champions League during his spell at the London outfit.
He scored a total of 157 goals in 342 appearances in his eight-year stay with the ‘Blues’ and was voted Chelsea’s greatest ever player in a poll of fans in 2012.
After a brief spell at Chinese club Shanghai Shenhua, he joined Galatasaray in January 2013 and was nonetheless a standout performer in the Turkish club’s campaign last season, scoring 10 times in 32 games.
Mourinho, who managed Drogba from 2004 to 2007 said: “If you bring him back it is not because he is Didier or scored the most important goal in the history of Chelsea, or because I read I need an assistant, no.
“We want to win matches and win titles and Didier is one of the best strikers in Europe. He is still very adapted to the needs of the Premier League and we are thinking about it in a non-emotional way.”
