Former Chelsea football star Didier Drogba has confirmed that he and Lalla Diakité have ended their 20-year-old marriage in 2020. He said he decided to publicize the break up of the union due to false media speculation concerning it.
The former Chelsea striker took to his Instagram page earlier in January 2021 to confirm that he is no longer together with Lalla who has been with him since he was playing for French club Le Mans between 1998 and 2002.
Lalla followed Drogba to virtually all the clubs he played for even after he left Marseille in France to play for Chelsea in England.
During the period where Didier Drogba was changing clubs, Lalla Diakité gave birth to Drogba’s first child, Isaac in France in 1999. Afterward, she gave birth to two more children, Iman Drogba, and Kieran Drogba.
Since Didier Drogba retired from professional football in 2018, Chelsea’s legend and his estranged wife continued to live together. But their romance started gaining negative publicity in early 2020 when the media started speculating that the 42-year-old retired footballer was having a misunderstanding with Lalla.
The rumor that Drogba was having marital problems with Lalla started when the retired footballer was busy trying to become the president of the football association in Ivory Coast. Unfortunately for him, he lost his bid to become Ivory Coast’s FA President.
Before 2020 ended, Drogba and his estranged Malian wife couldn’t continue with their marriage, hence, they had to go their separate ways. As of then, there was no confirmation that such a thing had happened. Drogba had to wait until January 2021 to announce it to the public.
In a short statement he posted on his Instagram story, Drogba stressed that though he has divorced Lalla, he is still close to her and they are both looking out for their children.
“I don’t normally discuss my private life, but due to false media speculation today I will confirm that sadly after 20 years together Lalla and I made the difficult decision to separate last year”, Drogba said.
“We remain very close and our main focus has been our children and protecting them and the family’s privacy.”
Didier Drogba and Lalla’s first child, Isaac, is a professional footballer. In 2018, the youngster who plays as a striker just like his father joined French side Guingamp, a former club of his father. The 20-year-old striker is currently without a club.
