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Didier Drogba, Ronaldinho, Fernando Alonso, Manu Ginobili, Sylvain Chavanel, Thiago Motta. This year many athletes have left the grounds, tracks, floors or roads. Back on six talents that will dazzle us more than their exploits in 2019.
>> Find here the highlights of the year of African sport
Didier Drogba: 20 years at the top level
November 9, 2018, Louisville Kentucky. Final whistle. Louisville has just won the US League, the second division of American soccer. But most importantly, a football star has just bowed out. After two seasons in Phoenix, Didier Drogba is retiring. The Ivorian, born in Abidjan, will have marked a period of African football, the one where we thought the Ivory Coast capable of everything.
After starting his career in France, Le Mans and Guingamp, he chose to play for the Elephants in 2002. He joined the OM in 2003 where he exploded and became the idol of the people of Marseille, before leaving the Channel, in Chelsea. In his 786 games, he scored 363 goals, won four championships in England and a Champions League and finished fourth in the Golden Ball in 2007. Only regret (eternal), never able to hang a CAN with the Coast Ivory.
Ronaldinho: the genie of the round ball
It's the idol of a whole generation going away. Ronaldinho, his dribbling, his stroke of genius. Formed at Gremio, he is revealed to PSG, who recruits him in 2001. After two seasons and a title of world champion with Brazil, he joins FC Barcelona, where it will be the consecration, with a Golden Ball and a Champions League on the clock.
Then the decline, inexorable. "Ronnie" goes out late at night, does not have the lifestyle necessary to play football. After passages in AC Milan, where he alternates brilliant and catastrophic performances, he returned to Brazil to Flamengo, then Atlético Minero. Without a club since 2015, he officially retired in January 2018.
Fernando Alonso: bye bye the F1
When Fernando Alonso arrives at Renault in 2003, the French team knows, it may be a nugget. A nugget, which will allow, in addition, the stable of Viry-Châtillon to win two world titles constructors and Alonso to win two world pilot titles. The only two. Without doubt the fastest driver on the set, he is unlucky with his cars or his teammates. After four seasons at Renault, he goes to McLaren where the rivalry with Lewis Hamilton and a case of industrial espionage will turn this experience into failure.
After a failed comeback at Renault, from 2008 to 2009, he became the number one driver at Ferrari, from 2010 to 2014, where he finished three times vice-world champion in moderately successful single-seaters. He returns to McLaren from 2015, in an average car. If Alonso turns the page of the F1, it does not stop the motorsport provided. In 2018, he won the 24 hours of Le Mans with Toyota and set himself the goal of winning the 500 miles of Indianapolis (which he already played in 2017). In short, we're not done with Alonso.
Thiago Motta: from young midfielder Barça Rijkaard to the mainstay of PSG Qatar version.
Thiago Motta was trained in Brazil, but he started in Barcelona at the professional level. From 1999 to 2007, he grew up and then won in the midfield of Barça. In 2005-2006, he was part of the Frank Rijkaard team, led by Samuel Eto'o and Ronaldinho, who won the Champions League against Arsenal at the Stade de France. After a season of injuries, he joined Atlético de Madrid and Genoa before settling at Inter Milan, from 2009 to 2012, where he won the Champions League, a second time, in 2010.
In 2012, he joined PSG, freshly purchased by Qatar Sport Investments. It stands out as a cloakroom setting at Parc des Princes. Undisputed holder with Carlo Ancelotti, then Laurent Blanc and Unai Emery, he marks the PSG by his presence in the field, which, like a metronome, allows to organize the game. He announced his retirement last May, and has since become , the coach of PSG's under-19 team.
Manu Ginobili: Spurs to the end
His number will be removed. An honor only made to club legends. And at San Antonio Spurs, Manu Ginobili is a legend: the best three-point scorer in the history of the club, the best interceptor, the 41-year-old Argentinian has been part of four of the five titles of San Antonio, as much as Tony Parker and one less than Tim Duncan.
With his fast, dynamic and intense game, problem for the defenders, he also conquered the grail of any basketball player. That of walking in the footsteps of the 1992 Dream Team and winning Olympic gold in Athens in 2004 with the Argentina team. Leader in selection, undisputed holder in San Antonio, he is the first Latin American player to cross the 1,000 mark in the NBA. He retired on August 27th.
Sylvain Chavanel: the "Machine" stops
What's better than a time trial for Sylvain Chavanel to bow down. He, who has won five times the title of champion of France specialty. He, who has been crowned two-time world champion team-mates with the Quick-Step. He, the darling of his generation, combining versatility, panache, offensives, and speed. What better than finishing his career in the Nations clock, in fifth place. The "Machine" still had it under the hood.
After debuting in the team of Jean-René Bernaudeau, then Bonjour Brioches-la-Boulangère, he joined Cofidis in 2005, then the Quick-Step, from 2009 to 2013, where he specializes in classics. It's hatching. Considered until then as a great hope, it asserts itself: a stage victory on the Tour in 2008, then two stage victories and two days in yellow in 2010. It ends even seventh of Paris-Roubaix in 2009 and (probably his biggest regret) second of a Tour des Flandes at his fingertips in 2012. To finish his career, he returned to the galaxy Bernaudeau in 2016, after having run two seasons in the Swiss team IAM, where he beats the record of participation (18) in the Tour de France, as well as Tours completed (16).