Drogba Scores a Goal

Voice 1:
Welcome to Spotlight. I'm Nick Page.

Voice 2:
And I'm Marina Santee. Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand, no matter where in the world they live.

Voice 1:
It was the last day of the football season. All eyes were on two teams. In two hours one of them would be football champions of England. One team was Manchester United. The other team was Chelsea. They were playing in separate games that day - but the results of the two games would decide which team would be champions.

Voice 2:
However, two of the players were hoping for another prize. These two men wanted to win the prize for scoring the most goals in the 2010 football season. Wayne Rooney plays for Manchester United. He had scored twenty-six goals. Didier Drogba plays for Chelsea. He had also scored twenty-six goals. The big question was, "Could either of them score today"?

Voice 1:
We move forward in time. It is the end of the afternoon. At Manchester, Wayne Rooney has already left the football field. He did not finish the game. He injured his leg. He did not score any goals. At Chelsea, Didier Drogba has scored three goals to help his team to become England's champions. He has also won the Golden Boot Award for being the top goalscorer in England for the year 2010.

Voice 2:
We move forward another six days. Chelsea have just played in a big game at Wembley Stadium in London. It is the FA Cup Final – one of the biggest events in English football. At the end of the game, only one goal has been scored.

That one goal has won the cup for Chelsea. It was scored by Didier Drogba.

Voice 1:
That same week, at the World Football Gala awards in London, Didier Drogba was chosen as the Best Striker in the World - that is, the best goal-scorer. It is an exciting year for this West African footballer. But his best day is still to come. For at this moment, a new hospital is being built in Drogba's home town of Abidjan on the Ivory Coast. The money for the hospital is coming from the Didier Drogba Foundation. The footballer has already given four and a half million [4,500,000] dollars of his own money to help pay for this project. The hospital will also offer a home for children who have no living parents.

Voice 2:
Drogba is a rich footballer who lives in London. Why is he giving so much of his money to help poor people in West Africa? For the answer, we have to go back a few years. Didier Drogba visited a friend in hospital in Abidjan. The poor conditions in the hospital made Drogba very sad. He wanted to do something to help. He says:

Voice 3:
"I do not forget where I come from. I have been given the chance to succeed in life, but I often think about the people who did not have this chance. We all need to do what we can to defeat poverty...

"We hear about all the diseases that cannot be cured, but young people are just as likely to die because they do not have the right medicines...

"I decided the Didier Drogba Foundation's first project should be to build and fund a hospital to give people basic healthcare and a chance just to stay alive...

"Women dying while giving birth in the 21st century should not happen. But there are still too many today, particularly on the African continent."

Voice 1:
Didier Drogba worked hard to be a great footballer. He is recognised as Africa's number one player. He is captain of his country's football team and is the best goal-scorer ever to play for the Ivory Coast.