game 1–0. Kalou's goal against Benfica was his 58th for the club. On 29 March 2012, he claimed he had been frozen out by former Chelsea manager André Villas-Boas. On 21 April, Kalou made his 250th appearance for Chelsea in a 0–0 draw away to rivals Arsenal. He started both the 2012 FA Cup Final and Champions League final, both of which were Chelsea victories. On 1 July 2012, Chelsea officially announced that Kalou's contract had come to an end along with José Bosingwa, after spending six years at the London side. He had made 254 appearances for the club, including 147 starts, and scored 60 goals. After his release, Kalou was linked with numerous clubs across Europe, including the likes of Schalke 04, Liverpool, Galatasaray, Newcastle United and Arsenal. Lille On 7 July 2012, it was confirmed that Kalou would sign for Lille on a free transfer after being released by Chelsea at the end of his contract. He was given the number 8 jersey. New manager Rudi Garcia was pleased to see Kalou join Lille, but admitted that it was not easy to convince him to join the French side. Kalou scored his first competitive goal for Lille in his second appearance, a header to equalize the scoreline against Nancy. His first Champions League goal for the club came in their 6–1 defeat to Bayern Munich on 7 November. In 2013–14, Kalou played all of Lille's games, starting all but two. He scored 16 goals, making him one of five runners-up to Zlatan Ibrahimović for top scorer. This included a hat-trick on 2 March with two penalties, as the Dogues won 3–2 at Ajaccio. Hertha BSC On 31 August 2014, Kalou joined Bundesliga side Hertha BSC on a three-year contract. The transfer fee paid to Lille was reported as €3 million. In his first full season at the Berlin-based club, he played 27 times in the league, scoring six goals and helping Hertha avoid relegation. At the beginning of the 2015–16 Bundesliga season, Kalou swapped number 11 for the vacant 8 shirt after the departure of Marcel Ndjeng to SC Paderborn. This was the same number he wore during his stint at Lille as well as with the Ivorian national side. He started the season in good goal scoring form, scoring the winner from the penalty spot in an opening 1–0 win away to FC Augsburg. He scored