Didier Drogba Signs with Montreal Impact After Trade with Chicago Fire

Major League Soccer has proved to be the final stop for many stars who plied their trade in Europe, and Didier Drogba is the next player to make the jump to the United States as completed a deal with the Montreal Impact.

The Impact confirmed the deal in a release a day after Jeff Carlisle of ESPN FC reported the club had acquired Drogba's rights from the Chicago Fire and are poised to ink the former Chelsea striker to an 18-month contract "in excess" of $3 million:

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Chicago initially obtained Drogba's rights by filing a discovery claim on the player and pursued him for over a month. The Fire thought its offer would be enough to entice the former Chelsea forward to head to the Windy City but Montreal soon entered the fray, and the prospect of playing in the French-speaking city proved more attractive to the former Ivory Coast captain.

When Drogba indicated his preference was to be in Montreal, the Fire traded his rights to the Impact in exchange for what one source with knowledge of the deal described as a "substantial amount of targeted and regular allocation money" well in excess of $100,000.

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On July 20, Montreal Impact owner Joey Saputo commented on the prospects of adding Drogba to his club and also pointed out another MLS team that's interested, per Lloyd Barker of TSN on Twitter: "We feel in this (French-speaking) market, this would be a perfect fit for Didier. I know Chicago is still in discussion with Didier, so let's see how this plays out."

Drogba had previously been linked to Inter Milan, with the striker telling FCInter1908 (h/t Sky Sports) on July 20: "Inter are a great club, and certainly if they were to contact me I'd gladly listen to their offer, but I'm currently in talks with an MLS club. Inter could be an option if they really are interested in me."

MLS has done well over the years to try to shed its "retirement league" label, but spending millions of dollars to attract the likes of Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard and Andrea Pirlo has only emboldened some of the league's more vocal critics in that regard. Adding Drogba to the mix further plays into that stereotype.

The other concern is whether the 37-year-old has enough left in the tank to provide the kind of value equal to what he'll earn. Some aging stars—most notably Denilson, Rafael Marquez and Lothar Matthaus—have struggled to deal with the physicality and faster pace of MLS.