Chelsea Football Club is 112 years old and it’s had tens of thousands of players to wear the blue shirt and famous badge but in this article and in Chelsea’s Greatest Countdown we’ve whittled it down to their top five. Two foreigners make the cut along with three English legends and each position on the pitch (aside from a goalkeeper) is represented. They come from three different eras revolving around success whether that’s five league titles or not even one, they’ve all played a key part in where the club is today.
5. Gianfranco Zola
The poster boy of the pre-Abramovich sides. The Italian forward was one of the first world-class foreign players to play for the club and kickstarted a period of silverware with his goals and mesmerising skill. His Chelsea career spanned seven years and he won everything but a league title – leaving just two years before the Blues came top of the pile for the first time in half a century. Ruud Gullit signed Zola for just £4.5m from Parma in 1996 and his influence on the pitch grew larger and larger throughout the season with the club going on to win the FA Cup with a 2-0 win over Middlesbrough. His stunning goals against Liverpool and Wimbledon in the run to the final were some of the most memorable during his time there.
Zola and Chelsea followed that successful season up with three more trophies the year after on both the domestic and continental stage. FA Cup and Community Shield wins followed while Zola picked up two club Player of the Year awards, that included his final season in 2002/03 where he bagged 16 more goals to add to his already impressive tally of 64. The little magician left his legacy on the club with a host of foreign talent following his path into West London.
4. Peter Osgood
The ‘Wizard of Os’ is widely known as one of the club’s greatest players and was certainly the best going into the 21st century. Like Zola, he was part of a successful cup team that won honours both in England and over in Europe. Osgood was a scorer in both replays of the 1970 FA Cup Final and the 1971 Cup Winners’ Cup Final against Leeds United and Real Madrid respectively, both of them turning out to be vital as his club turned their recent good form into something tangible. The forward bagged a crucial equaliser with a diving header at Old Trafford to force Leeds into extra time and he scored the eventual winner in a 2-1 win over Real Madrid in Piraeus, Switzerland.
Another cup final goal followed a year later but it wasn’t enough to stop the Blues going down 2-1 to Stoke in the League Cup. In fact, his goal tally of 150 is bettered by just four Chelsea players – two of which are further up this list. Somewhat surprisingly he only won one Chelsea Player of the Year award but it’s his goal-scoring ability that fans will remember him for for years to come.
3. Didier Drogba
Perhaps the main reason why Chelsea won so many trophies between 2004 and 2015 – the years where he played for the club over two spells. The Ivorian powerhouse scored in four FA Cup finals, two League Cup finals and won the Premier League golden boot on two occasions – he’s not just a legend of Chelsea, he’s a legend of football. That’s not mentioning that night in Munich. Drogba scored the crucial late equaliser, a bullet of a header from a corner, before converting the winning penalty in the shoot-out to earn Chelsea their first Champions League title. He wrote his name all over that final against Bayern Munich and, in typical Drogba fashion, enjoyed it in style.
His goals fired Chelsea to four league titles, including two in his first two seasons in the club. The likes of Hernan Crespo, Andriy Shevchenko and Fernando Torres fell by the wayside with no one dislodging him permanently from his first-choice striker role. His leadership and experience came in use upon his return in 2014, winning the league with Jose Mourinho for the third time and scoring four goals in the process. He sits fourth on the overall club top scorers list but it’s the significance of his goals that earn him third in this one.
2. John Terry
Despite being a controversial figure in English football, he’s the most successful captain in Chelsea’s history; leading the club to a total of 17 major trophies over the course of his 19-year career at his boyhood club. He’s arguably the best defender in the Premier League era and spent around 15 years at the centre of Chelsea’s defence; providing tough tackles, brave blocks, important clearances and lots of crucial goals. You can’t underestimate his value to the squad both as a leader and as a defender, we’ve seen how the team have suffered since his departure to Aston Villa in the summer.
Perhaps his most memorable goal is that header against Barcelona in the Champions League in 2005 but maybe the moment that sums him up the most took place in the 2007 League Cup final. JT went for a loose ball in the Arsenal penalty area and beat Abou Diaby’s foot to the ball, heading his effort over. But Diaby’s ended up kicking Terry in the face and knocking him out cold – the skipper had to go to a nearby hospital for some checks and was back to celebrate the club’s triumph just hours after. He truly is Chelsea’s captain, leader, legend.
1. Frank Lampard
The crown belongs to Super Frank, Chelsea’s all-time record goalscorer with a whopping 211 goals. Lampard dominated Premier League midfields for the best part of 15 years while at Stamford Bridge and is the midfielder with the most goals in the competition’s history, sitting ahead of the likes of Steven Gerrard and Paul Scholes. It was Lampard’s goals that fired Chelsea to their first league title in 50 years and his double at Bolton that secured it. There was a 5-year period in the late 2000s where Lamps bagged 20 goals or more a season with his highest tally coming in the 2009/10 season with 27.
Due to the absence of the suspended Terry, it was Lampard who was captain on the night in the 2012 Champions League final with the England man battling away in a tough game and converting his penalty. He’d scored in a shoot-out four years prior in Moscow as well as in normal time but it wasn’t to be for the Blues on that occasion against Manchester United. Premier Leagues, a Champions League, a Europa League, FA Cups, League Cups and Community Shields as well as three Chelsea Player of the Year awards. He is the closest Chelsea player to win the Ballon D’Or – coming 2nd in 2006 behind the legendary Ronaldinho but it’s Lampard who is on top in Chelsea’s Greatest Countdown.