MONTREAL -- Didier Drogba called his year and a half of playing in Major League Soccer a positive experience.

"It was a very good experience in many ways," Drogba said Friday in his last session with the media before leaving the Montreal Impact. "I came out of my comfort zone, playing in Europe, to come here at an advanced age, and to create an expectation from everyone to perform and to be good even though I was 37, 38 now -- that's why I'm so proud of what I did here.

"To be able to play and score some goals and, I hope, inspire some people and see people react -- even opposition fans showed us more respect -- and I think I won my battle."

Drogba said his favourite moment in Montreal remained his arrival in July 2015 when he was greeted by hundreds of singing, dancing fans at Trudeau Airport.

The Ivorian legend didn't disappoint, drawing sellout crowds as he scored 11 goals in as many regular season games to lift the Impact into third place in the Eastern Conference and a berth in the playoffs, where they lost to Columbus in a conference semifinal.

The 2016 season was tougher, although he still added 10 goals in 22 games and helped Montreal go one step farther. The Impact reached the conference final where they lost in extra time to Toronto FC.

Fans were concerned last winter when it appeared that Drogba wanted to take a job with his former club Chelsea rather than return for a second season.

And he was heavily criticized for walking out on the Impact when coach Mauro Biello left him out of the starting 11 for a game against Toronto late in the season. He returned the following day after agreeing to play off the bench for the rest of the campaign.

Drogba recently announced he will leave the Impact when his contract expires at the end of the year but is not ready to retire.

"I will continue," he said. "Where? I don't know."

His teammates will miss him.

"I'm sad that he's leaving," said Impact player of the year Ignacio Piatti. "He's a great person.

"I learned a lot from him in one and a half years. Good luck to him for his future."