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.

Three Nigerians shortlisted for CAF awards

Three Nigerians made the shortlist for the 2010 edition of the Glo Confederation of African Football (CAF) Footballer of the Year award.
Dickson Etuhu, Osaze Peter Odemwingie and Kalu Uche were the only Nigerians picked in the nominees for this year’s award.
The provisional list of Caf for the 2010 award is full of surprises, as Nigerians will be shocked to find Etuhu in the list and John Obi Mikel excluded despite the player being touted as having improved his game in recent games for Chelsea.

Explaining the rationale for the shortlist respected Caf instructor, Adegboye Onigbinde, said that every award has it criteria for nominating players.

He opined out that it should be remembered that the likes of Etuhu, Odemwingie and Kalu Uche appeared in several international matches for Nigeria in which Mikel did not.

Onigbinde used the 2010 Fifa World Cup as an example.

“You cannot win awards when you don’t play at the very big stage. Yes no doubt playing for your club is good but every award has its own criteria for picking nominees and the Caf award is no exception.

“So the players nominated for the award must have picked based on certain co-efficient like playing in the Fifa World Cup this year and also other international matches for their countries.

The absence of Mikel might be due to such lack of picking enough co-efficient to be nominated,” the former Nigerian head coach said.

However, Mikel’s Ghanaian teammate, Michael Essien, is also missing from the provisional list of 30 and his case is believed to due to the injury that kept him away from competitive football for a long period, which led to his missing the Mundial in South Africa.

Apart from Etuhu, Odemwingie and Uche in the Caf nominees, it is learnt that Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana produced five players each.

The trio of Cameroon, Egypt and Morocco has three players each like Nigeria while Algeria produced two.

Benin Republic, DR Congo, Mali, Senegal, South Africa and Zambia all have one player apiece in the Caf award’s provisional list.

Perennial nominees such as Chelsea’s Didier Drogba and Samuel Eto’o of Inter Milan and Cameroon are part of those named in the shortlist.

Other top names in the hat are Asamoah Gyan and Andre Ayew of Ghana, the Toure brothers – Kolo and Yaya and their Ivorien teammate, Salomon Kalou.

The 30-man list is expected to be trimmed to 10 by Caf’s three committees of media, technical and football