Chelsea title winner, 39, comes out of retirement to join second division 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.

Chelsea hero Salomon Kalou has come out of retirement for a surprise clubGetty Images - Getty

Chelsea hero Kalou is set to play for a second-division club in the Ivory Coast

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.