For Cote d’Ivoire international Didier Drogba, 2009 has been a mixed year. While qualification to the World Cup 2010 in South Africa is certainly a great achievement, there is no discarding the Blues' fall in the Champions League to Barcelona, which left a bitter after-taste. In the FTBL ranking, Drogba was likewise hardly very stable. He currently has an overall score of 170.28 points but is out of the top 6 of our world ranking of strikers.

In April, for example, Drogba hit more than 213 points in our system, and going into the last games of the year he stands a good chance of substantially improving his positions. In the game against Birmingham City on Saturday, the Ivorian will face a daunting plank of approximately 30 points to beat in our system, which he set with two goals in the 3:0 win over Arsenal.

In the last game of the year against Fulham, Drogba will face a very low plank of just 3 points, which he should easily beat. However, keeping in mind what happened to Manchester United recently, caution is preferred here.

Will the talented forward end the year in the highest echelon of the world’s top strikers or will he even lose his leadership in our ranking of Cote d’Ivoire strikers? The next two games will provide an answer to that question.