Iconic figures in African football: from Roger Milla to Didier Drogba

Abstract

The rise of celebrity culture is a theme that has attracted a significant amount of attention within the realm of sport and culture related studies in sociology. Indeed sportsmen and women were the pioneers of celebrity status in ancient Greek society. Associating sporting accomplishments with celebrity has now been magnified by the media and the ensuing debate on the celebrity–media nexus and the cultural changes due to globalization have acquired considerable significance in academic studies. In this essay, I endeavour to focus on Roger Milla and Didier Drogba who captured the hearts of soccer-lovers worldwide in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. I will try to capture the essence of the celebrity status of these two soccer icons by evaluating their images in relation to debates surrounding African soccer, sports labour migration and the state of the domestic game. It is my argument that the two rose to iconic status because they ventured outside the continent to compete at the highest level while still maintaining and contributing heavily to the success of their national teams. The career trajectories for Milla and Drogba reveal the dynamics and dilemma that potentially successful African football players have to negotiate.