Few players have inspired such debate throughout the Premier League era as Chelsea great John Terry, who made his debut on October 28, 1998. Terry was just 17 when he came on off the bench for Romanian Dan Petrescu, as he played the final four minutes of a 4-1 League Cup victory over Aston Villa and featured alongside the likes of Dennis Wise, Gianluca Vialli and Gus Poyet.
Terry’s first start came the following January in 2-0 FA Cup win at Oldham before he went on to have a loan spell at Nottingham Forest. However, it did not take him long to become a Chelsea regular and was named captain upon Jose Mourinho’s arrival in 2004.
Immediately his influence was felt as he guided the club to the first of five Premier League titles as captain in 2004-05.
In October 2006, he even had a spell in goal after both Peter Cech and Carlo Cudicini has been forced off through injury away at Reading. There seemed nothing JT wouldn’t do for the team and the fans responded in kind with the now iconic ‘Captain, Leader, Legend’ banner that adorns Stamford Bridge.
A talisman of a particularly feisty Chelsea team, there wasn’t a melee he wasn’t involved in. He was also the figurehead of a cabal who appeared to hire and fire managers whenever they deemed a particular coach was not acquiescing to their wishes – just ask Andre Villas-Boas and even Mourinho towards the end of his second spell.
Of course, there were times when managers looked to move him aside, interim-boss Rafael Benitez winning the 2012-13 Europa League and FA Cup with the now-38-year-old on the bench is the most obvious example, but he always came through for the better.
Terry was never away from the tabloids either, as allegations regarding his personal life cost him the England captaincy, but even for all the division that episode caused, he still retired from international football in 2012 with 78 caps.
There was also a Magistrates’ Court case for allegedly racially abusing Queens Park Rangers’ Anton Ferdinand in November 2011, losing him the Three Lions’ armband for a second time, and earning a four-match ban and £220,000 fine after being found guilty by the FA.
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After famously taking to the pitch in full strip after Chelsea’s 2012 Champions League success, despite not playing in the match due to suspension, Terry was the subject of much tabloid and social media mirth. The victory will have been sweet for him though, having slipped in the Moscow rain when taking his penalty in the 2008 shootout defeat to Manchester United.
Eventually, everything has to move on, and so it proved for Terry at Chelsea, with Antonio Conte deciding the skipper could no longer cut it as part of a back three and he left in the summer of 2017, signing a deal at Aston Villa.
A season at Villa Park produced a run to the play-off final but heartbreak against Fulham would prove the defender’s final game. However, on October 10 last year, he took up a job as part of Villa boss Dean Smith’s coaching team and is regularly seen gesticulating on the sidelines in a bid to get his side a break.
Some things never change with JT but it all started 21 years ago today when the boy who would be king of the Bridge first stepped out in the famous royal blue.
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