It has taken just three seasons for Didier Drogba [Images] to catapult to fame, his achievements at club level now matched by a trip to the World Cup finals.

Drogba will lead Ivory Coast to the finals for the first time, having just months ago captained the side as they reached the final of the African Nations Cup in Egypt only to lose in a penalty shootout.

He proved an influential force for the Ivorians in the tournament, just as he had in scoring nine vital goals in the World Cup qualifiers over the preceding 18 months.

Ivory Coast grabbed a place in the tournament in Germany [Images] from favourites Cameroon on a dramatic last day of qualifiers last October.

It was in the royal blue colours of Chelsea over the last two seasons and previously the light blue of Olympique Marseille that Drogba forged his ascension.

He has played in two successive championship-winning sides with the London [Images] club and won a League Cup winners' medal last year.

At Marseille, he was a UEFA [Images] Cup finalist and voted the best player in France's [Images] Ligue 1 by his fellow professionals.

Drogba's story has a rags-to-riches element to it, although he is steeped in footballing pedigree.

At the age of 13 his parents sent him to live with an uncle in France, Michel Goba who was a professional footballer at Brest. Drogba's cousin Oliver Tebily is a former Ivorian international who played at Glasgow Celtic and is now with Birmingham City.

After struggling to gain momentum in the early part of his career, even quitting for a year while a teenager, he suddenly came good at Guingamp where he scored 17 goals in a season before moving to Marseille.

From then the momentum was rapid, culminating in his then African-record, 24-million-pound move to Chelsea in mid-2004, a record since beaten when Chelsea paid more to bring Ghanaian Michael Essien to Stamford Bridge from Lyon.

There have been some recent rumblings that he was on his way out of Stamford Bridge, but coach Jose Mourinho said he was going nowhere while under contract. Despite a degree of inconsistency in his game, Mourinho knows just how valuable a player he is.