Life after Drogba: How Phoenix Rising has moved forward without their retired striker/co-owner

July 30, 2024

Legendary striker Didier Drogba didn’t come to Phoenix to enjoy 60-degree weather in the winter and relax by the pool in the summer. No, Drogba joined Phoenix Rising to win games and to elevate the club’s status in USL and around the world.

During a home game against San Antonio FC in July of 2017, Drogba started at striker for Phoenix in the full heat of the Arizona summer. In a moment when he wasn’t busy giving San Antonio’s center backs headaches with his movement and his 6-foot-2 frame, Drogba tossed out an irresistible pitch to a talented opponent about coming to Phoenix.

San Antonio winger Billy Forbes, who won the USL player of the month award earlier in the 2017 season and would receive a number of calls from other interested USL clubs looking to acquire his services in the offseason, caught Drogba’s attention during that July game.

“Didier told Billy on the field, ‘You’re going to play for us next year. I want you,’” Phoenix’s vice president of marketing and sales Sam Doerr said. “He was a big part of the recruitment. A lot of people wanted Billy Forbes in the offseason and his idol was Didier and that’s part of the reason that we got him.”

While Forbes wasn’t as productive in his one season with Phoenix Rising as either party would have liked — he had only three goals and two assists in 24 matches during 2018 — the fact that Drogba started building the next year’s roster in the middle of a regular season game speaks to his personal draw and business acumen.

Phoenix Rising no longer have a world-renowned superstar playing and recruiting during games for them. But the impact from Drogba’s time in the desert is still being felt.

Before he signed on as a player and part owner of the club in April 2017, the USL franchise wasn’t exactly feared by other teams in the league. Between Pete Wentz, a member of the band Fall Out Boy, Diplo, a well-known DJ, and others, the club already had a star-studded list of minority owners, but they had just finished a rebrand from Arizona United and it was uncertain whether the team would be able to gain a foothold in a crowded Phoenix sports market.

Doerr would know. Though he is currently a part of Phoenix’s front office, back then he worked for San Antonio FC.

“At the time, we kind of had always just joked about Phoenix, or really Arizona United,” he said. “It was one of our favorite places to come play. Usually we got points. It wasn’t the hardest matchup in the world; there wasn’t a ton of atmosphere.”

But Drogba brought credibility, and having a soccer legend on board seemingly allowed the team to skip straight past the awkward identity-searching phase of their rebrand and head straight to the part where a well-run club becomes marketable off the field and successful on it.

“Essentially, it jump-started the brand and got Phoenix Rising to be known around the world,” said general manager Bobby Dulle of Drogba’s arrival as an owner and a player. “It was unbelievable to get a guy like him to be a part of this plan at the ground floor.”

But in November 2018, after two seasons filled with memorable victories and a USL Cup final appearance, Drogba retired at 40 years old. It would have seemed only logical for merchandise and ticket sales to decline with the retirement of their best player, but that is not what has happened in Phoenix this season. Doerr says that, while Drogba did “build the foundation from a ticket-sales and a crowd-support standpoint,” his absence has not hindered the team’s sales numbers. In fact, Phoenix’s sales and season ticket numbers are higher this season than they have ever been.

“Because of the culture he created in the locker room, the culture he created off the field, his professionalism, his expectations for everybody… I don’t think we ever had a worry, to be quite honest, and I don’t think that’s a slap in the face to him or discrediting him,” Doerr said. “I think that just speaks to how far the club as a whole has come”

Phoenix Rising hasn’t suffered from a dip on social media side of things, either. Drogba captivated a lot of eyes over the past two years with his long-range free kick goals and other on-field skills, but instead of letting those eyes drift elsewhere, Phoenix has carried their social media momentum into this season.

.@didierdrogba scores from WHEREVER he wants 🔥#SCTop10 #USL pic.twitter.com/kcKGglLFoW

— USL Championship (@USLChampionship) May 13, 2018

“We had the number one engagement on social media of any sports team in Arizona last year and a lot of that was because of Didier,” Doerr said. The club gets their engagement numbers from MVPIndex, an Austin, Texas based company that helps brands measure how they’re performing on social media.

“This year, our numbers aren’t down. They’re up,” he added. “A lot of that is because we gained a ton of followers, we gained a ton of eyeballs, and we’ve kept the momentum going. The team is winning — that helps — and we’re playing attractive soccer. It seems like any time we have a game, something comes out of it, whether it’s a move or a goal, and dollar-beer night has kind of filled the hole from a storyline perspective. Certainly, it opened the door to what was possible and we’ve built on that.”

Though the club hasn’t needed to use his image to get social media engagement or sell tickets this season, Drogba is still in contact with Phoenix’s coaching staff and players.

“Didier is still around, don’t fool yourself,” head coach Rick Schantz said. “He talks to the players, he talks to me. No one will ever forget what he did for this club.”

“He’s still in our group message and every now and then he will pop up and wish us some good encouragement and tell us to keep going and that he’s been paying attention,” said left back Amadou Dia. “He’s still very much present with us.”

“For guys that are on the team (now), that weren’t on the team last year, when a message pops up from Didier Drogba, it’s ‘Oh man!’” said goalkeeper Carl Woszczynski, laughing. “It’s even cooler for them to see that he’s still involved and still around (in a way).”

Some of the players in Phoenix Rising’s group chat were drawn to the club by Drogba’s involvement. Before the 2018 season, Drogba helped secure the signing of current captain Solomon Asante, who leads the league in goals and assists in 2019. Asante had played under Patrice Carteron, who was Phoenix Rising’s head coach at the time, when they were both at TP Mazembe in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Between his prior relationship with Carteron and the opportunity to play with an African soccer legend, Asante’s choice to come play in Phoenix was a straight-forward one.

“With Patrice here and Patrice having Didier here on the team, it provided credibility,” said Dulle, the general manager. “The level that we play at, the standard that the club has set, all of those things were there and it made the decision that much easier for Solomon.”

Asante was just one of several African players drawn to Phoenix by the chance to play with Drogba. Ivorian center back Doueugui Mala, who has started 13 games for the club this season, and Ghanaian midfielder Gladson Awako, who played in 31 games for Phoenix from 2017 to 2018, also wanted to play alongside the Ivorian legend.

“Those guys were aware of what we’re doing in Phoenix because of Didier Drogba,” Dulle said. “Didier and his relationships and his network. Those guys wanted to be a part of an organization with an absolute icon in Africa, as well as all over the world.”

Drogba’s draw went beyond his fame. He was also responsible for implementing some of the player care and physical recovery tools that Phoenix Rising uses today. Because of Drogba, Phoenix has started to use cryotherapy and yoga as tools to help make the long season less strenuous for its players — all common among top European clubs, but less so in the USL, according to Doerr.

While it certainly helps to have Drogba on speed-dial, Phoenix Rising no longer has to rely on him as much to bring talented players to the valley. Between Phoenix’s appeal as a major American city, the club’s success in USL over the last two years and their detail-oriented coaching staff and medical team, players want to play for Phoenix Rising because it’s a solid step in their careers.

In this past offseason, Phoenix brought in a number of high-quality players, including former Columbus Crew and San Jose Earthquakes striker Adam Jahn and Jamaica international Junior Flemmings. Those two, plus Asante, have been the most productive attacking trio in the league so far this season.

Their output has been maximized by the coaching staff’s aggressive, attack-first style of play. It’s a stark contrast from the tactical principles that Carteron instilled in the team last year. In 2018, Phoenix spent most of their time defending in a mid-block, winning the ball in their own half and counterattacking into open space. Their attack relied on Drogba’s free-kick prowess and the physical, quick play of their other attackers to create goals.

“With Didier, you knew you had one or two goals from set pieces every game,” said Schantz. “And then you had Chris Cortez, who was unbelievable in the air and could win anything and could knock it down. Coupled with Billy Forbes, Jason Johnson, Solo Asante on the wings, there was no point for us to keep possession as long as we didn’t concede. Patrice knew that if we didn’t give up goals, we were going to win games.”

It may seem odd to claim that Phoenix has a better on-field product without Drogba, one of the most dominant strikers of his generation. But between teammates relying too heavily on his scoring ability and also having to cover for his lack of defensive work-rate, Phoenix Rising were somewhat limited tactically during his time at the club.

“Last year, we were more direct, and every time we’d play with Didier, I mean, he’s Didier Drogba so every time he gets on the ball, something magical can happen,” said Dia. “So, we’d try to get him the ball as much as possible. But this year is more as a collective, we play more as a group. So, we try to play more as a team than going directly.”

Because Phoenix no longer has to accommodate Drogba’s lack of defensive movement by compressing space between their defensive lines, and cater to his attacking presence by playing more direct balls forward, Schantz has been able to, in his own words, “take the leash off.”

Schantz has drilled possession principles into his team in order to maximize the number of chances that his players will be able to find, and exploit space in the attack. Phoenix’s training sessions are often based on breaking down compact defenses with passes between the lines, overloads and off-ball movement.

Phoenix has had remarkable success with their new style of play. They are in first place in the Western Conference, broke FC Cincinnati’s record for consecutive USL wins earlier this season and recently bested the record for most consecutive wins in American professional soccer, set by the LA Galaxy across 1997 and 1998. Phoenix Rising also leads the league in wins, points, goals scored and goal difference.

While Drogba’s involvement with the club should not be overlooked — he has helped, and will continue to help bring players, money and eyeballs to soccer in the desert — Phoenix Rising has proven that they are ready for life after Drogba. The club is stable both on and off the field, and is playing some of the best soccer in the United States.

(Photo: Courtesy Phoenix Rising FC)

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