In an article first published on the Chelsea Official App in the summer of 2024, birthday boy Wesley Fofana - who turns 25 today - tells us how his Blues connection began when he was just a little boy...
I started to love Chelsea because of one man: Didier Drogba.
I played striker when I was a boy, just so I could be like Drogba. I went to Marseille games, just so I could watch Drogba. I sat and watched YouTube videos for hours, just so I could learn from Drogba.
Didier was a reference point for me. He started in a little club and every season he built it up. He’s an example for this reason. He never let up; he worked every day.
I remember the final in Munich when Chelsea were losing 1-0. He scored but then after that, gave away a penalty to Bayern. Even after that, he took the penalty in the shoot-out and scored.
He is a big legend at Marseille and Chelsea, his mentality is amazingly strong, and I like this.
### Just for Drogba
Take my first football experience, for example…
My first game was in Marseille. I went to watch Olympique de Marseille, it was crazy.
Why did I go?
To see Drogba.
As you can imagine, this was a big dream for me and I was very happy, it was very nice.
It was in the old Stade Velodrome, I was quite young. The atmosphere was mad, it was a very big stadium, and it's even bigger now. In that city, the football is their life, it is everything and that makes it a crazy atmosphere at the stadium.
It was just incredible. I went to the stadium just for Didier Drogba. It was the dream for me as a kid to see Drogba and that's when I got to watch him play.
Before I was thinking the players are like this and like that, but when you go to the stadium you are close to the players and it’s completely different, you see it in a new way.
The whole thing made a big impression on me, but more the players on the pitch because you’re very close and you feel the players and it’s just very, very crazy.
And then Drogba scored!!! I went mad!
I even had the same hair as Drogba when I was young, I was a big fan. I copied his hair and I went to the stadium just for him. So when he scored, it tasted like perfection.
### Marseille roots and family life
I come from Vitrolles, north Marseille. I had a troubled upbringing, a struggling family. But in Vitrolles, we come together through the love for the ball. Every girl, every boy, plays football. It’s normal.
You don’t know anyone? It’s no problem. ‘Come and play in my team!’ I’d shout. It’s good, it’s real life.
I lived with my grandmother, my cousins, brothers, sisters… my mum. I am one of six children. I know… crazy huh!
They knew I loved football.
Every day after school, I ran home and went straight to the pitch. The Bouches-du-Rhone city stadium, to play with my friends.
I was so obsessed with football, that I was once sent home from school for playing football in the classroom.
And now here I am, at Chelsea. Wow!
### For them
Here, I hope to be like the French legends Desailly and Makelele. I hope in 20 years time, I will have a banner at Stamford Bridge, just like them.
But I wouldn’t even be playing for Chelsea if it wasn’t for my family.
My grandmother, my mum.
And that’s why on my social media accounts, I use the hashtag #PourEux.
Because everything I do is _For Them_.