Career Review: John Terry

 Career Review: John Terry

John Terry is a player whom every Chelsea fan deeply loves and respects. One of the few players who made it from the Chelsea academy into the first team, Terry has played for Chelsea in 547 games over the course of his career and has scored 49 goals. Terry certainly has a special place in the hearts of Chelsea fans.

Born in 1980, Terry initially was a midfielder. In 1991, he joined West Ham United's youth facilities and played as a midfielder there. He shifted to Chelsea at the age of 14. It was due to a shortage of centre backs that Terry was moved to that position, the position in which he became one of the world's best in the years to come.

Terry made his Chelsea debut coming on as a late substitute on 28th October 1998 in a League Cup tie against Aston Villa. He also spent a brief period of time on loan at Nottingham Forest and began establishing himself in the first team in the following season.

In the 2000-01 season, Terry made 23 starts for Chelsea and was voted as the Player of the Year. Since then, there was no looking back for our Captain Fantastic. Having played with Chelsea legends like Marcel Desailly and Frank Leboeuf, Terry was ready for his next challenge and was named as our captain by Jose Mourinho in 2004. 

Winning the Premier League and the Carling Cup in his very first year as a captain, Terry became one of our only four captains to lift major trophies. That same year, he was also voted PFA Player of the Year, becoming the first Chelsea player to win that accolade.

The 2006/07 season can be considered as the only low in JT's career as he face prolonged back injuries that season. Although it took him 2 years, Terry was back to his best and leading Chelsea towards glory again. Always standing up for his players and being very supportive in the dressing room, he is one of the most respected individuals at Stamford Bridge.

John Terry has seen Chelsea at their best and through the somewhat difficult times. Some of the players at Chelsea ran out of form sometimes weakening the team. But no matter what the conditions, we never had to worry about out captain. He always performed the very best in matches and made Chelsea's defence one of the best in the world. Terry is known very well for his ability to organize the team and the defence. His tackling skills have denied goals to many teams against Chelsea. 

Terry's positional sense and aerial abilities have also helped Chelsea in scoring crucial goals many a times. However one incident that every blue fan considers very unfortunate is the 2008 Champions League final. Taking the final penalty that could have gotten us our first Champions League back then itself, Terry slipped right before he was about to kick the ball and missed the penalty. This went on to haunt us as Manchester United, the team we were facing in that match,  won the Champions League that year.

Last season Terry missed out on playing in the final because of a foul committed in the second leg of the semi final against Barcelona saw him get a red card. Although it would have been simply magnificent to have Terry in our lineup for the final, he was just as jubilant when his team mates won the trophy under the leadership of Frank Lampard. 

Being 31 years old now, Terry still has about 3 to 4 years of quality football left in him. There is no question as to which club he would prefer to retire at. He has been a blue for most of his life and has shown and proved his loyalty to Chelsea over the years. We Chelsea fans are also proud of having the world's best centre back playing for our team. He has been called violent, arrogant and dominant by many but what they don't realize is that he is a man who is wildly passionate about his club and stands up for what he believes. Many Chelsea players have said that John Terry is the most supportive player they have met and is always willing to help anyone he can. He undoubtedly is a Captain, Leader and a Legend.

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