Sunderland chairman Niall Quinn has praised Didier Drogba’s remarkable show of charity, after the Chelsea striker pledged £3 million to build a hospital in his native Ivory Coast.
The 31-year-old is handing over the fee he will receive for becoming the new face of Pepsi, while there are reports that Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich will make a donation in a show of support for Drogba.
Quinn, who gave away the £1.1 million raised from his testimonial to charity in 2002, said: “What Didier Drogba has chosen to do with the £3 million sponsorship money from Pepsi is sheer class.
“It’s great to hear stuff like that because it makes you proud to be associated with the Premier League. This should help counter the belief that the league is packed full of mercenaries.
“Didier’s motivation is obvious – he realises that he has escaped the poverty that is so prevalent in Africa and it is to his enormous credit that he is prepared to do something about it.”
The former Republic of Ireland striker added:”And what a thing to do, to build a hospital from scratch is a phenomenal effort. All we did was raise some money and hand it over. I never really felt it was money, it felt more like a collective.
“But there was real fulfilment in doing so. We split the £1 million between hospitals in Dublin and Sunderland and the additional £100,000 we donated to an orphanage in Calcutta run by a friend of mine.
“To my shame, I’ve not been out there yet but I am planning too there next summer. I am sure that Didier will feel the same sense of fulfilment, and fair play to Chelsea for their contribution.”
Drogba launched the Didier Drogba Foundation two years ago, bought land in his hometown of Abidjan and committed to start raising funds to build the hospital.
The project gained momentum when 19 fans were killed and 132 injured after a wall collapsed in Abidjan’s Fellx Houphouet-Bolgny stadium before a World Cup qualifier between the Ivory Coast and Malawi in March.
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