Didier Drogba...the name strikes fear into defenders throughout football and excites fans around the world. The giant forward's life story is as amazing as some of the goals which have turned him into a hero on two continents.

Born in 1978 in Abidjan, the capital of the troubled African state of Ivory Coast, he was sent to live in France with an uncle, a professional footballer, at the tender age of five. At the age of nineteen, Drogba signed with Le Mans before moving to Guingamp and becoming an Ivory Coast international.

In 2004, Chelsea splashed out GBP 24 million to bring him from Olympique Marseilles to Stamford Bridge. His goals and commitment won supporters' hearts but he has courted controversy along the way, apparently confessing to 'diving' in opposition penalty areas, and his sending off in a brutal Champions League clash with Barcelona led to one of the world's top referees quitting the game. He has even had to face competition for his place from Ukrainian goal-machine Andriy Shevchenko.

Now, one of the highest-paid footballers in the world, his amazing life story reveals the struggle of his early years, his battle for acceptance on and off the football field and the truth about his rivalry with Shevchenko in a story that really is stranger than fiction.