PARIS - Chelsea's Didier Drogba entered this season having lost his passion for football, the Ivory Coast striker told French media.

PARIS - Chelsea's Didier Drogba entered this season having lost his passion for football, the Ivory Coast striker told French media.

"I had completely lost the fire. I no longer wanted to hear talk of targets or ambition.

I felt completely extinguished. For the first time in my career, I had lost the passion for football. I was lost," Drogba said in an interview with France Football magazine published Tuesday.

Drogba, who joined Chelsea from Marseille in 2004, said he understood why Chelsea manager Luiz Felipe Scolari is leaving him more on the bench this season in favour of Nicolas Anelka, currently the Premier League's top scorer.

"For the moment, I can only keep quiet," France Football quoted Drogba as saying in extracts of the interview posted on its Website.

"It is not because I have been here for more than four years that I have a right to make demands to be in the starting lineup. At the moment, there's a guy who is hot and racking up goals. I must wait my turn."

But he suggested that Scolari pair him with Anelka more often in attack.

"I have always said that I was happy that Nicolas came to Chelsea.

But I still cannot understand why managers are afraid to put us together," Drogba said.

Sapa-AP