Drogba likes to make himself feel important

March 11th, 2008 | Posted by PostmanR

A few falls ago when I studied abroad in London, I marched into Lillywhites to buy an English National Team soccer jersey near the end of the term. I did not want the white one. (Would get too dirty.) I did not want the red one. (Red isn’t my color.) So I settled on the navy one and made sure to have them iron on “OWEN 8″ on the back because Michael Owen had just migrated to Newcastle that year and he seemed like a swell fellow. (He also wasn’t David Beckham.)

But, you see, the navy jersey was the keeper’s color and the dude working the register made sure I knew this. Owen is not a goalie; he is a striker. “But you’ll be wearing this in America,” he said. “No one will know.” Over two years later, the guy was right: no one has ever called me out for the inaccuracy. (Although, I’m sure everyone will now!)

Except maybe for Chelsea’s Didier Drogba. He seems to really know all about faux jersey buying. From the Daily Mail via Fark:

The 29-year-old, originally from the Ivory Coast, has reportedly spent thousands of pounds on replica shirts in a bid to try and convince his team-mates he is just as much of a crowd favourite as they are.

[ … ]

One Chelsea insider claimed Drogba visits the club shop up to 10 times a week and on one occasion walked out of the store with 40 shirts priced at approximately £45 each, setting him back £1,800.

The first-team regular could easily get shirts free of charge but the £70,000-a-week centre forward is paying like any other customer to improve his shirt sale statistics.

A Stamford Bridge source revealed: “Dids is never out of the club shop. He is spending a fortune.

“He is on first name terms with the staff and is easily their best customer.

“The competition to be the most popular is massive and Didier hates losing.

“He has been buying loads of copies of his number 11 shirt and must be up there with the club’s top sellers by now.”

This was kind of like the time I made $10 a day at my lemonade stand. I would pretend I was my own customer and man was I a salesman. Fresh squeezed lemonade, coming right up!

It was a lonely summer.