Didier Drogba wants to return to Chelsea and coach under Guus Hiddink, according to former manager and mentor Guy Lacombe.
Hiddink confirmed last month that the Premier League champions were in talks with the Ivorian about a third spell at Stamford Bridge as part of the backroom team after both men watched Chelsea begin life after Jose Mourinho alongside owner Roman Abramovich.
Drogba left Chelsea for the second time last summer to join Montreal Impact, scoring 11 goals in 11 MLS matches to fire his team to the Eastern Conference semifinals. The 38-year-old is contracted until December 2016 and took to Twitter earlier this month to downplay reports of his imminent retirement.
MLS commissioner Don Garber insisted on Thursday that he remained hopeful that Drogba -- who was back at Stamford Bridge to watch Chelsea's 2-2 draw with West Brom on Wednesday -- before attending the NBA Global Game with several Blues players at London's O2 Arena -- could yet be persuaded to play out the final year of his deal with the Impact.
But Lacombe, the manager who brought Drogba from Le Mans to Guingamp in 2002 and has remained in close contact with the Ivorian ever since, insists his former player and close friend has already informed him of his decision.
"We spoke via text message and he told me that he wants to become a coach alongside Guus Hiddink," Lacombe told BBC's Sportsworld radio programme. "Of course I really hope it goes well for him and I don't have any concerns about him, because he's someone who is very intelligent and very determined in everything he does.
"Didier has such an aura about him that if he becomes a good coach it could be significant. He has the quality, now he has to take the time, like [Zinedine] Zidane, to really understand the mechanics of coaching, to really understand game management when it comes to a team.
"If I had advice for him it would also be start with a youth team, as well as having an eye on the first team alongside Hiddink. Then he will see all the problems a coach can have. And yes, I believe he has the quality to become a great leader and manager who can really motivate players."
Drogba won four Premier League titles, four FA Cups, three League Cups and the Champions League over a total of nine years at Stamford Bridge, and was voted Chelsea's greatest ever player in a poll conducted by the club's official magazine in 2012.