Chinese interest in Didier Drogba

Didier Drogba is considering a proposal to move to Chinese football as his request for a two-year contract extension continues to go unmet at Chelsea.

In what would constitute an extraordinary statement of intent by the Chinese Super League, the 33 year old has been invited to join fellow Chelsea forward Nicolas Anelka at Shanghai Shenhua.

Shenhua intend to announce the acquisition of Anelka this week on a lucrative, three-year contract that will include significant commercial components.

Anelka has been exiled from Chelsea's first-team squad by Andre Villas-Boas, who has excluded the former France striker from senior training and approved the acceptance of a transfer request.

Out of contract at the end of this season, Drogba is entitled to discuss terms with overseas clubs from January 1, and has an array of suitors. The Ivorian and his family are settled in London but he is reluctant to compromise on the terms of his next deal to remain in the city.

Chelsea presented Drogba with a single-season extension in October that reflected attempts to control salary costs and a long-term strategy to reduce their squad's average age. The African's counterproposal of a two-year deal was rejected by the club, who have made no offer of improved terms since.

Drogba has known since pre-season that Villas-Boas considered him a reduced force, and intended to use Fernando Torres ahead of him at centre forward.

Although Chelsea's manager has subsequently relegated Torres to the bench and asked Drogba to help him turnaround a poor sequence of results, their relationship remains difficult.

At the end of a week in which Drogba's two goals against Valencia secured a place in the last 16 of the Champions League, Villas-Boas lauded the striker.

His stance on the player's future, however, was equivocal, indicating that upcoming international commitments with the Ivory Coast were being factored into a decision on the player's future.

"His level of performance has been outstanding," said Villas-Boas. "Of course the club have to agree that players who perform are the players who should continue. It's an ongoing talk with him and his people.

"Also we have to recall that he's going to the African Nations Cup and won't be back until February 12, so there's a lot to decide. But his professionalism and integrity will never be in question, regardless with what happens with his contract."

In addition to Anelka and Alex, the Brazilian defender, who has also been excluded from training, Villas-Boas has been backed by the club in phasing Frank Lampard and John Terry out of the first team.

Shenhua's courtship of both Anelka and Drogba is part of a plan to win the Chinese Super League for the first time. The first Chinese club to employ a foreign chief executive and technical director, Shenhua finished 11th in the 16-team division last year, and are to be coached by Jean Tigana, the former Fulham manager, when the new season begins in February.

"He [Tigana] has already made a one-year coaching plan for the team," said owner Zhu Jun. "Football in China did not lack money, nor people, but confidence and hope."

sport@thenational.ae

'Panga'

Directed by Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari

Starring Kangana Ranaut, Richa Chadha, Jassie Gill, Yagya Bhasin, Neena Gupta

Rating: 3.5/5

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The specs

Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cylturbo

Transmission: seven-speed DSG automatic

Power: 242bhp

Torque: 370Nm

Price: Dh136,814

War on waste

Campaigners call for UAE supermarkets to charge for plastic bags

UAE's takeaway culture sparks environmental concern

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At a glance

Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.

Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year

Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month

Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30

Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse

Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth

Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances

2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups

Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.

Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.

Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.

Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, (Leon banned).

Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.

Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.

Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.

Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.

The specs

Engine: 8.0-litre, quad-turbo 16-cylinder

Transmission: 7-speed auto

0-100kmh 2.3 seconds

0-200kmh 5.5 seconds

0-300kmh 11.6 seconds

Power: 1500hp

Torque: 1600Nm

Price: Dh13,400,000

On sale: now

The smuggler

Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.

Khouli conviction

Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.

For sale

A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.

- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico

- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000

- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950