Did Footballer Didier Drogba Change His Religion? No, the Claim Is False

The former player has issued a clarification on his Twitter and denied changing his religion.

Fact Check: The claim suggests that former football player Didier Drogba has changed his religion. 

(Photo: The Quint)

A series of pictures of former Chelsea Football Club (FC) player Didier Drogba, where he can be seen praying, has gone viral on the internet.

What is the claim? : The pictures are being shared to claim that Drogba has changed his religion and converted to Islam.

An archive of the post can be seen here. 

(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)

(Archives of similar posts can be found here, here, here, here and here.)

What is the truth? : The football player clarified on 8 November on his official Twitter handle that he has not changed his religion.

How do we know? : We went through the official social media handles of the Drogba and found a tweet posted by him on 8 November on his Twitter account.

In the tweet, the former football has clarified and said:

• "I haven't changed religion."

• He further mentioned that he was just paying respect to his Muslim brothers during his visit to his village.

Where are the pictures from? : On checking Drogba's Facebook account, we across a post with more pictures of him wearing the same shirt and the other person in the viral picture can also be seen standing next to him.

On comparing these pictures, we found Drogba can be seen standing with the same person as seen in the viral picture.

(Source: Didier Drogba/Facebook/Altered by The Quint)

• The pictures were taken on 4 November and were from a tournament, held to promote social cohesion.

• The post further mentioned that Drogba along with his friend visited their respective families living in Niaprahio and Guiberoua.

Who is Didier Drogba? : He is an Ivorian football legend and has played as a forward for Chelsea FC. Drogba is the highest all-time top scorer for his national team. He was considered as one of the best African players, having been named twice as the Best African Player of Year in 2006 and 2009.

Conclusion: Evidently, pictures of former football player Didier Drogba is being shared with a false claim that he changed his religion.

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