Signed for a big fee of £8,200,000 after the 2006 World Cup, where he starred for Ivory Coast, Didier Zokora brought his busy midfield style to Tottenham as Martin Jol started to build his side. Zokora has become a popular player among the fans, if not star name, but he puts in a huge amount of work in each game and much of that goes unrecognised.
Coming in as the third most expensive player Spurs had ever bought at the time, the midfielder needed to show what he was capable of straight from the start and his dynamic action did have an effect on the team. Capable of breaking down the opposition's moves and then breaking at pace with his direct running at the other side's defence, he added a new asset to the midfield.
Made a name for himself in his home city of Abidjan with ASEC Mimosas, who he played for from their Academy upwards. Brought to Europe by Belgian club Genk, where he became an integral part of their midfield in winning the Belgian league championship in 2002 and his European experience with them earned him a move to St. Etienne, where he gained more experience in European competitions. It was here that he became known to Tottenham's Sporting Director, Damien Comolli, which helped pave his way to White Hart Lane.
Perhaps in the inflated transfer market of the time, Spurs paid way over the odds for Zokora (but he wasn't the only one), but he has been a consistent performer for the team. His passing isn't always great and he has adopted the mantle of the "new Steffen Freund" as the fans shout "Shoooooooooot" when he gets the ball in the opposition half, as he has rarely come close in two seasons in the Tottenham team. Two opportunities in the successful League Cup final of 2008 could have wrapped up the game, but it was not to be for Didi. However, he did coolly slot home his penalty in the UEFA Cup shoot-out in the tie against PSV Eindhoven and also scored one for the Ivory Coast in an African Cup of Nations shoot-out.
Having lost favour when Harry Redknapp came in as manager and bought Wilson Palacios as the main defensive midfielder, Didier grew impatient at not having first team football with the World Cup finals in South Africa coming up in 2010. This lead to him leaving White Hart Lane to join Sevilla for a rumoured £8.5 million fee and two years later, he made the move to play in Turkey for Trabzonspor.