Drogba arrives in China to hero's welcome

The Ivorien, Didier Drogba was given a hero's welcome as he arrived in China on Saturday to start a two-and-a-half-year contract that is expected to make him one of football's highest-paid players.
   Hundreds of fans, many clad in "Drogba 11" shirts, greeted the former Chelsea star at Shanghai's Pudong airport, some carrying flowers, others brandishing his name in English on placards and many jostling to touch him.
   "What I experienced at the airport this morning was unbelievable. Even when I was at Chelsea I never experienced anything like this," the 34-year-old told reporters at a press conference to launch his career with Shanghai Shenhua.
   The Ivory Coast striker sealed a deal that Chinese and British media have said is worth 200,000 pounds ($314,000) a week, making him the highest-paid player in China and in the top bracket globally.
   But he insisted money was not the reason he had moved to a side languishing near the bottom of China's Super League, just weeks after he scored the penalty that won Chelsea the European Champions League.

Drogba joins a fast-expanding group of foreign stars who have been lured to China on enormous salaries, which are typically funded by Chinese business titans.
   Drogba will play alongside French striker Nicolas Anelka, who signed with Shenhua in January on a deal believed to be worth nearly as much.
   The pair will work under former Argentine coach Sergio Batista, who joined the club in May. Shenhua are bankrolled by high-profile video-game tycoon Zhu Jun.
   In the far south of the country, World Cup-winning coach Marcello Lippi is at the helm of league-leaders Guangzhou Evergrande, and Nigerian striker Yakubu Aiyegbeni has just signed with cross-town rivals Guangzhou R&F.