Didier Drogba, a former footballer who made his name with English club Chelsea and represented te Côte d’Ivoire at three World Cups, had a different perspective when asked about the “Drone-gate” story currently enveloping Canada’s women’s soccer team at the Olympics in Paris.
“Ah, it happens,” said Drogba, with a laugh, when asked by Ariel Helwani of CBC Olympics in Paris how common it was for teams to employ a drone or other methods to sneak a peek at the opposition’s training sessions. “It happens a few times.”
The story about a member Canada’s coaching staff being caught using a drone at a pair of New Zealand practices has been referred to as a cheating scandal, a fiasco, and an Olympic embarrassment. The initial response to the news was for Canada Soccer analyst Joseph Lombardi and assistant coach Jasmine Mander to be sent home from the Games. Later, head coach Bev Priestman was also suspended and sent home, after it came to light that this was not the first time Priestman’s staff had employed the tactic.
Drogba’s take was decidedly different, offering a big laugh and a shrug when asked by Helwani how big of a deal this was.
“I mean, it doesn’t really affect the result of the game,” said Drogba, 46, who was an Olympic torchbearer for the Games. “It affects some situations, I believe, of the game. But the end result, when you go down, you know what you’ve prepared.
“You know how to win, you know how to play and how to win. And for me, I mean, they just caught them. That’s it.”
Drogba played in several African Cup of Nations tournaments and captained his team to the finals twice, as well as appearing in three World Cups (2006, 2010, 2014). He scored 100 goals for Chelsea in the Premier League and also played parts of two seasons (2015-2016) with Montreal in Major league Soccer.