After announcing his retirement from football, Chelsea legend, Didier Drogba, has revealed how a “spur of the moment” conversation with Jose Mourinho saved his football career.

The 40-year-old said that his Blues career could have been over before it had even got started, but Mourinho saved it by telling him that “I would go to war with you”.

Drogba said that he was considering leaving Chelsea soon after his arrival in 2004 – only for some words of wisdom from Mourinho to transform his career.

“It was a difficult year, coming to Chelsea, and I was like ‘I’m not happy here, maybe it’s not for me and maybe I need to go’.

“But he was saying ‘No, you have to stay, I will help you, you must stay’.

“I was looking for that comfort zone, which means going back to Marseille, which means being the only striker and the team is playing for you.

” Then I heard Mourinho say something really interesting to the whole team. He was saying ‘You know what, if you want to be the only king then go back to the team that you were playing for, scoring 100 goals or so. Go back there. But here, there’s 22 kings. So. you accept it, work together or you go. Go back to where you came from and be the only king where everybody is behind you’.”

“Suddenly I thought ‘wow’. I knew I needed to improve and that’s what really challenged me, and it’s why I became the player that I was.”

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Drogba also won four FA Cups and three League Cup victories during his time in west London.

The 40-year-old scored 164 goals in 381 games during his time at Stamford Bridge.

Drogba played for Le Mans and Guingamp before joining Marseille, who he left for Chelsea in 2004 for a then club-record £24m deal.

He left Chelsea to join Chinese Super League side Shanghai Shenhua in the summer of 2012, but six months later moved on to Galatasaray in Turkey before returning to Stamford Bridge for a brief spell in July 2014.

A move to MLS franchise Montreal Impact followed and Drogba stayed in the US to take up the role at Phoenix.