Chelsea Champions League winner, 39, comes out of retirement to join second tier club… as player AND director
CHELSEA Champions League winner Salomon Kalou is set to play for a second-division club in the IVORY COAST.
Winger Kalou spent six years at Stamford Bridge, scoring 60 goals in 254 games.
He played in the Blues’ 2012 Champions League final win over Bayern Munich.
A £9million buy from Feyenoord in 2006, Kalou also won the 2010 Premier League title, four FA Cups and a League Cup with the west Londoners.
The 93-cap Ivory Coast international went on to play for Lille, Hertha Berlin and Brazilian club Botafogo.
He made a surprise move to Djibouti club Arta Solar 7 two years ago, where he lined up alongside ex-Arsenal midfielder Alex Song.
Arta’s Ivorian chairman Tommy Tayoro Nyckoss took charge of home-country club SC Gagnoa earlier this month.
And the businessman convinced Kalou, 39, to join as both a director and a player. Gagnoa paraded him at a ceremony earlier this week.
The southern club was relegated from the Ivory Coast’s Ligue 1 last season.
They are based 40 miles from the Chelsea hero’s birthplace Oume, north-west of the African country’s capital Abidjan.
Kalou said: “I am going to get a player’s licence, so that I can be part of coach Bernard Casoni’s squad.
“And maybe if SC Gagnoa play against ASEC Mimosas or Africa Sports in the Ivorian Cup, I will take part in the game.”
Kalou began his career with ASEC before landing his move to Feyenoord in 2003.