Chelsea Drogba will snub Real deal for Inter
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Chelsea Drogba will snub Real deal for Inter
Champions League final villain Didier Drogba is holding out for a move to Italy, despite Real Madrid's renewed interest giving him another way out of Chelsea.
Drogba's agent, Pierre Frelot, met Real sporting director Predrag Mijatovic in Moscow before Chelsea's defeat by Manchester United last Wednesday but the Ivory Coast striker would rather join AC Milan or Serie A champions Internazionale, where his former mentor at Chelsea, Jose Mourinho, is the favourite to take over as manager.
Both Real and AC Milan have offers on the table for Drogba, although neither has met Chelsea's minimum £20million valuation, while Barcelona and Inter have expressed strong interest.
But while his destination remains unclear, it appears certain that his last act for the club will turn out to be the petulant slap he gave United's Nemanja Vidic in Moscow, a senseless act which earned him a red card and deprived his team of a key penalty taker for the shootout which decided the epic match.
Mijatovic, in typical Real Madrid style, has made no secret of his enthusiasm for Drogba.
'Drogba is a great striker who interests big clubs and Real Madrid are one of them,' he told a gathering of Real supporters and journalists.
'We have many sets of negotiations in progress at the moment and I expect to close some deals shortly.'
Chelsea's reported interest in Real forward Robinho could yet lead to a mutually satisfactory swap deal, but Drogba himself has set his heart on Italy.
AC Milan remain attractive to him, despite their failure to qualify for next season's Champions League, but his dream move would be to Inter if Mourinho, who wrote the gushing foreword to Drogba's forthcoming autobiography, took over from Roberto Mancini.