Ohn During his 717 games for the west Londoners, Terry witnessed Chelsea’s greatest and worst moments. The former central defender, who joined the academy as a 14-year-old eager to play, spent more than 20 years in the capital and was also a regular for England.
Terry, a five-time Premier League champion, spent a significant portion of his career at Chelsea. He moved in the summer of 2017 to play his final season with Aston Villa, another top division team, before retiring in 2018.
He played with a variety of superstars during his time at Stamford Bridge because the stadium was home to multiple clubs with different styles. The veteran from Barking trimmed down his old teammates into an ideal XI and named it Terry’s “Team of 120.”
Defenders and goalkeepers Thiago Silva, Ashley Cole, Marcel Desailly, Cesar Azpilicueta, and Petr Cech
No gold medal is awarded for predicting who he chooses to start in goal: the commanding Petr Cech, who backed Terry 390 times between 2004 and 2015. Regarding the Czech Republic international with 124 caps:
Immediately, I visit Big Pete because of our mutual achievement, our bond, and the fact that he was just the best.
Cech became one of the finest goalkeepers in Premier League history by spending little over ten years of his career with the Blues. His total of 207 clean sheets is still a record today.
Terry was unable to decide between Cesar Azpilicueta and Branislav Ivanovic, so he chose the latter to be his captain for the team’s unexpected Champions League victory in the 2020–21 season. The 35-year-old Spaniard was the ideal professional.
Terry, a former central defender, said he was inspired by Marcel Desailly as a child and understands what it takes to play in the middle of the backline. “I got a glimpse of what it was like to be the best, and I idolised him.”
As a young player, he was also very kind to me; at the age of 17, he had plenty of time for me. Marcel is in, then.
Terry selected Thiago Silva, who played 155 games for the Blues between 2020 and 2024 and helped the team win the Champions League in his rookie season, to avoid having to choose between Gary Cahill and Ricardo Carvalho.
Terry, who claimed to be “arguably the best left-back in the world at that time,” unsurprisingly chose his countryman Ashley Cole on the left. – and in doing so, ignored people like Graeme Le Saux and Wayne Bridge.
Terry’s Chelsea starting lineup: defenders and custodian
Name and Position
Games
Clean Sheets
Objectives Given Up
Playing games with Terry
GK: Petr Cech
494
228
393
390
Name and Position
Games
Objectives
Helps
Playing games with Terry
Ashley Cole, LB
337
7.
33
312.
Marcel Desailly, CB
222
7.
3.
92
Thiago Silva, CB
155
9.
4.
0
Cesar Azpilicueta, RB
508
17
51
129
Players in the middle
Frank Lampard, Cesc Fabregas, and Claude Makelele
Terry’s three-man midfield was anchored by Claude Makelele, who had a role named after him and is widely regarded as one of the best anchormen in football history. The Frenchman played 217 games for the west Londoners, although he only contributed eight goals.
Makelele made 186 appearances in front of Terry and his group, and throughout those games, he established himself as one of the best defensive midfielders in the club’s history. The former defender also selected Chelsea royalty Frank Lampard.
“Lamps enter immediately. Frank is, in my opinion, our greatest player ever. And once more for durability, objectives, and recurrence year after year,” Terry went on, before stating: “Lamps is in that group. Hazard is our most gifted player ever, but in my opinion, Lamps is the best of all time in terms of his accomplishments. He’s on board.
What hasn’t been said about Lampard already? Terry is giving him plaudits because he was the glue throughout Chelsea’s difficult days. He was a superb box-crashing midfielder with the skill and technique to spray passes left, right, and centre.
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Waxing poetic about both Fabregas and Lampard, Terry said: “But with those two, Cesc and Lamps, even though I told them, they’d already seen it – or seen a better pass! They way their brains thought about football was excellent, so I’m not surprised to see them both doing really well in management.”
Terry’s Chelsea XI – Midfielders
Name and Position
Games
Objectives
Helps
Playing games with Terry
CM – Claude Makelele
217
2.
6.
186
CM – Frank Lampard
648
211
146
581
CM – Cesc Fabregas
198
22
57
83
Attackers
Eden Hazard, Didier Drogba, Gianfranco Zola
Eden Hazard, a winger, spent the majority of his career with Chelsea in the English capital. After joining as a young player in 2012, the Belgium captivated supporters every year. Terry didn’t hesitate while choosing the left-winger, stating:
Before naming Damien Duff and Arjen Robben as his rivals, he declared, “Hazard goes straight in as, for me, being Chelsea’s most talented player.” “But Hazard is that, so he has to go in for me, just like with Cesc, who was the best.”
Hazard may not have the goal-scoring talent of Mohamed Salah of Liverpool, but he more than makes up for it with his ability to dance around the opponents like they are waxwork figures. He captured the essence of the lovely game’s excitement.
Few line-leaders in his heyday were as comprehensive as the mysterious Didier Drogba. As shown by his 164 goals for Chelsea, he was not just lethal in front of goal, but defenders suffered much from his link-up play, physical strength, and deft movement.
Regarding Drogba, Terry stated: “It was really easy for me to go into games on Saturdays because I had been playing against such a high level of players playing against Didier in training Monday through Friday.” And he was always at his best every day that he was working.
Even before the Blues’ heyday, Gianfranco Zola was considered one of the greatest Premier League football players of the 1990s. At his best, he was practically unstoppable, and his low centre of gravity made him a nuisance. In addition, he mentored Terry. The former captain of Chelsea stated:
For me, Gianfranco goes in. Franco and I were playing a game of Legends recently, and he was still incredibly fast. He had a lot of time for me since, like Marcel, he was a child.
Chelsea’s XI under Terry: Attackers
Name and Position
Games
Objectives
Helps
Playing games with Terry
LW: Eden Hazard
352
110
85
149
Didier Drogba, ST
381
164
78
320
Gianfranco Zola, RW
312.
80
42
103
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