Didier Drogba was given a hero’s welcome as he arrived in China on Saturday to start a two-and-a-half-year contract that is expected to make him one of football’s highest-paid players.

Hundreds of fans, many clad in “Drogba 11” shirts, greeted the former Chelsea star at Shanghai’s Pudong airport, some carrying flowers, others brandishing his name in English on placards and many jostling to touch him.