Didier Drogba has certainly never been far from controversy over the past year, writes Stephen Fottrell.
The Chelsea striker's first appearance in a Champions League final ended in disgrace in May after he was given a straight red card for slapping Manchester United defender Nemanja Vidic.
Whether Drogba's absence was a factor in Chelsea's loss remains a matter for debate, but he would surely have been able to influence the outcome of the deciding penalty shoot-out had he stayed on the pitch.
He contributed eight league goals to Avram Grant's team's challenge for the Premier League, which went right to the wire on the final day of the season, but again the Blues came up short behind Alex Ferguson's side.
Injury has ruled the striker out for much of the 2008/09 Premiership season, but the Ivorian target man did himself no favours on his return to the team by earning a three-match ban for violent conduct.
The year did start promisingly for Drogba, however, as he led Ivory Coast to the semi-finals of the Africa Cup of Nations in Ghana in February.
Drogba brought his international goal tally to an impressive 33 goals in 52 appearances, as he scored three of the Elephants' strikes in their run to the last four, before being knocked out by eventual winners Egypt.
He has since missed out on a handful of his national side's qualifying games for the 2010 World Cup and Africa Cup of Nations, also due to injury, but will hope to play a more central role in the final round of matches next year as the Ivorians bid for a second successive World Cup appearance.
The 30-year-old has also brought an end to a year of speculation linking him with moves away from Chelsea, revealing that Grant's successor Luis Felipe Scolari persuaded him to stay on at Stamford Bridge.
