The ex-Ivory Coast international had two separate stints with the European Champions, but he is still short of the African record for most appearances for a single Premier League club
Former Super Eagles star Shola Ameobi is ahead of Chelsea legend in the list of African players with the most appearances for a single Premier League club.
Ameobi played for Crystal Palace and Newcastle during his time in the Premier League, making 298 appearances in the competition.
However, he only played just four of the games in Palace's colours, with the other 294 appearances all for Newcastle.
This makes the former Nigeria international the African player with the most games for a single club, playing 40 more games than Drogba, who made 254 appearances for Chelsea across his two spells.
Another Ivory Coast player in Wilfried Zaha is third on the list after making his 250th appearance for Palace in the clash against Brentford on Saturday.
294 – Shola Ameobi (Newcastle)
254 – Didier Drogba (Chelsea)
250 – Wilfried Zaha (Crystal Palace)@wilfriedzaha becomes just the third African player to hit 250 appearances for a single club in the #PL#BRECRY pic.twitter.com/4aN3MaX7CB— Premier League (@premierleague) February 13, 2022
He has the chance to beat Ameobi's record, though, if he stays at Palace for a long time. Ameobi's Premier League career spanned 14 years.
The Nigeria international started his career at the club after his family moved from Nigeria to the city. He made his first-team debut for the club in 2000 in a home game against Chelsea.
Ameobi scored 43 goals and recorded 32 assists in his Premier League games for the Magpies. Although he also qualified to play for England and played for the Three Lions youth team, Ameobi represented Nigeria at the international level.
He scored two goals in ten appearances for Nigeria and was part of the Super Eagles squad for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
Drogba never had 2 separate times playing for Chelsea, pls check your records…
He left Chelsea after the champions league and came back under Mourinho. The author is correct
What you don’t know is greater than you,bro.
Wahala be like bicycle oooo. I thought drogba played all through for Chelsea