Drogba and Eto'o set to meet again nine years on from Barca farce... but why did Jose turn down Ronaldinho?

Wednesday’s Champions League tie in Istanbul, when Galatasaray host Chelsea in a match which will once again feature these three icons of the last decade, will be entertaining... but not quite as volatile.
By the time the dust settled on February 23, 2005 at the Nou Camp, Eto’o had scored Barcelona’s winner, Drogba had been sent off and Mourinho had accused Swedish referee Anders Frisk of direct complicity with the Barcelona manager Frank Rijkaard.

 Samuel Eto'o (centre) confronts Didier Drogba with referee Anders Frisk taking charge

Bitter wound: Drogba remonstrates with Barca keeper Victor Valdes after the foul which saw him dismissed

Making his point: Frisk (right) quit football after being subject to death threats over the incident

Frisk, who immediately became the victim of death threats, quit the game to protect his family once his children were also menaced because of the Chelsea boss’s accusations.
The match had been Mourinho’s first return to the Nou Camp since leaving Louis van Gaal’s coaching team five years previously, meaning that  this wasn’t his first experience of the idiosyncratic but ferocious Eto’o, with whom he now has such a successful history.
The Portuguese had been in his last months as van Gaal’s assistant when Barcelona, featuring Frank de Boer, Carles Puyol, Luis Figo, Rivaldo, Xavi and Phillip Cocu, were thrashed 3-0 at home by Mallorca via a hat-trick from the self-same Cameroon striker.

Out of the blue: The tie sees Jose Mourinho come face-to-face with Didier Drogba

 It could have been blue: Roman Abramovich offered to buy Ronaldinho from Barca for Jose Mourinho

Brothers in arms: Mourinho's capture of Drogba was one of his most shrewd moves as manager

Nor does the Nou Camp connection as to how these two Africans and their mentor Mourinho have such a long, rich heritage together, end there.
When Mourinho first took hold of Chelsea there was no Fair Play and almost no limit to Roman Abramovich’s willingness to disperse his wealth — and the Russian wanted Ronaldinho.
Taking his new manager aside, Abramovich — already pre-supposing Mourinho’s answer — offered to boost his team-building via the gift-wrapped present of Barcelona’s Brazilian — already en route to being the greatest player of that era.
‘No’, the Special One answered. ‘I want Drogba.’ The same Drogba who immediately announced that he hadn’t wanted to leave Marseille, who didn’t want to be at Chelsea... and who subsequently became one of the club’s all-time legends.

Things have gone well for all three of them over these nine years since that explosive night. Between them they have won 42 trophies  (Mourinho and Drogba commencing the following weekend via the 3-2 League Cup Final victory over Liverpool) including the 2006, 2009, 2010 and 2012 Champions League Finals — Drogba getting the winner in Munich, Eto’o one each in Paris and Rome.
The players have swapped allegiances such that this week it’s Eto’o and Mourinho against Drogba, albeit there were winter rumours that Drogba and current coach Roberto Mancini (not Mourinho’s greatest admirer) were sufficiently at odds that the Ivorian might once again end up at Stamford Bridge.
Given that they are two behemoths of the African game, Eto’o and Drogba naturally have a personal history away from Mourinho.
The two men have often scored big goals home and away against each other, for Ivory Coast and Cameroon respectively, but not once with the same titanic importance as a year after that infamous night at the Nou Camp.

It was the Africa Cup of Nations quarter-final — Cameroon v Ivory Coast. Tied 1-1 after extra time, there were 22 consecutive successful penalties, begun in sequence with 1-0 via Eto’o and 1-1 thanks to Drogba. Come the 23rd penalty and Eto’o misses.
Up steps Drogba, as he would in Munich for Chelsea six years later, and buries the spot-kick winner. Their last competitive international meeting.
Knocked out by Drogba’s Ivory Coast in the qualifying for World Cup 2006 (despite beating them twice) and tipped out of a quarter-final the year after in such dramatic fashion — Eto’o hasn’t had the best of times against his continental rival.
He says he bears no malice. ‘Didier is a living legend for everything he has done and achieved,’ he says. ‘He is totally unique. His achievements have meant that all African players who come here will be respected. But it’s not about comparisons and I don’t need to get fixated on everything he’s done.
‘You know, African players are never truly respected to the extent that we deserve and people try to set us against each other for the simple fact that we have perhaps achieved more than European or South American players.
'They like to put us in our place. All I want to do is follow my own career and along the way win some respect for all young Africans  coming here, just as Didier has done.’

In action: After starring for Barca against the Blues, Eto'o is now leading the line at Stamford Bridge

Each man has talked of enormous respect for the other but were united in mutual criticism of the lack of professionalism in African football.
Tournament or qualification planning ruined by bonus rows, political intervention, knocks on the bedroom door at 2am from a federation official wanting an autograph for his son or a friend.
In Mourinho, Drogba and Eto’o have found the epitome of what they need — a demanding, organised, competitive leader. Someone to look up to.
Drogba’s Galatasaray team-mate, Wesley Sneijder, also worked for the coach he faces this week (while winning the Treble for Inter) and puts it like this: ‘Mourinho is a machine. I’ve always known some players are machines but now I’ve met a manager who is the same.

Meeting the mentor: Wesley Sneijder is another ex-Mourinho player looking forward to a reunion

‘He means so much to me and is an incredible coach. No 1 without a doubt.
‘He had complete faith in me and I started to enjoy football like I never had before. With him, the relationship is so much more than player-coach. He’s a friend.
‘He just always knows exactly what to do and say. He has this way of convincing you to do things and he also knows exactly how to help if things aren’t going well.’