Paris: Ivory Coast striker Didier Drogba is leaving Chelsea after playing a leading role in their Champions League triumph, according to a report to be published in French magazine France Football on Tuesday.
Drogba, who scored the winning penalty in the shoot-out against Bayern Munich on Saturday after cancelling out Thomas Mueller's opener, has reportedly told his teammates that "we will not be together next season" during the parade to celebrate their Champions League triumph.
"I am getting ready for a great leap into the unknown," he added without hinting at a possible destination.
"As I have decided to leave, I wanted to tell them to their faces. They made me break down. I found it hard to admit that it was finished with me and the club."
"I don't envisage sitting on the bench watching others play at a time when the club is looking at putting together a new team. "So there we go. It will be another adventure."
Drogba, 34, joined Chelsea from Olympique Marseille in 2004 and has won three Premier League titles with the west London club as well as four FA Cups.
Chelsea chairman Bruce Buck said that the club will hold talks with Drogba, who is out of contract next month, about a new deal next week.
Buck said on Sunday that Chelsea chief executive Ron Gourlay is likely "to sit down with his [Drogba's] agent this week and we'll see where it goes." "Didier is a big-match player and he did it once again. He's a good guy, a great player. We have to do what's best for Chelsea football club and Didier has to do what's best for him."
The Chelsea players, however, have been unanimous in asking the club to keep Drogba at Stamford Bridge.
"If you ask every player at the football club, you'd hope that he stays," defender Gary Cahill said. "But he's obviously got his own decision to make. It was just fitting that he took the penalty that won us the cup, he got us back in the game late doors. He just seems to turn up in these big games and that's the kind of player he is."
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