Didier Drogba reveals why Chelsea team-mate Frank Lampard had the biggest influence on his career
The Chelsea pair enjoyed great success while working together, but Drogba believes it was due to the extra hours of practice that they put in together
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DIDIER DROGBA called time on a stellar career earlier this month, having played with some of football's greatest, but he hailed Frank Lampard as the biggest influence on his career.
The former Chelsea pair played together in west London during one of the club's most successful periods, which led to Champions League triumph in 2012.
Drogba and Lampard enjoyed great success during their eight years together at Chelsea and the Ivorian remembers them fondly.
Speaking at a Yokohama fan event in Tokyo, Drogba spoke about Lampard's direct impact on his game, he said: "There's one [player] that I'm going to put a bit more in front, because most of my goals came from him, it's Frank Lampard.
"And also because every day after training we were staying on the pitch trying to practise, trying to create some exercises because the ones we did a few days ago were becoming too easy.
"So, we were trying to bring in new exercises and that's how we progressed and challenged each other to score goals, to create assists and for me I learned a lot from him."
He still speaks fondly about the club where he won four Premier League titles, four FA Cups and the 2012 Champions League during two spells in the capital.
The Ivorian moved to Stamford Bridge on July 20, 2004 from Marseille and managed to set an impressive record with Lampard by setting one another up on 36 occasions in the Premier League.
Their record is still the highest combined figure, between two players, for goals and assists in English top flight.
Both players posted tribute to the other when they announced retirement and spoke about the additional training sessions fondly.
And when Lampard announced that he was moving to Derby to become their manager, Drogba joked that he may well go and play for the Championship club for a few months to support 'his man'.
Lampard holds many club records for Chelsea, including all time goal scorer with 211 goals.
But the pair were undoubtedly instrumental in helping each other, and the club, achieve such impressive results.
