Why John Terry Is Chelsea’s ‘Captain, Leader, Legend’

It’s the international break and again it comes tinged with a hint of regret that John Terry isn’t representing England.

A recent ankle injury picked up against Swansea City has seen the 35-year-old ruled out of Chelsea’s games leading into the internationals, so the chances of him representing the Three Lions this weekend, regardless of his retirement, would have been slim.

It doesn’t mean we look at England’s back line without a sense of longing and regret; a sense of thinking what could be were Terry still representing his country.

Sure, in the twilight of his career, that England are still to replace him with a player of similar influence is a big concern. Terry has been four years retired from the international game, and still England continue their search for another defender as capable.

It’s the same for Chelsea. His overall retirement from the game has been on the cards for some time; every season we’re asking if it’ll be his last. Even as 2015/16 came to a close, we were asking if we would see him again at Stamford Bridge in Chelsea colours. The club waited to the final game of the season to offer Terry a new contract, which he would sign a few days later.

Still, there’s no sign of him being replaced, and Chelsea face a massive task to identify the player who can take them forward.

Terry has become an essential part of the Chelsea fabric. Such is his influence and legend, the club simply won’t feel the same when he does eventually depart.

So how did he become such a giant of the game at Chelsea? Where did Terry’s journey into greatness start? Speaking with some former team-mates, Chelsea supporters and also trawling through the archives of Terry’s impressive career, Bleacher Report sets out his journey to the top, breaking down the key aspects of what has made him the player and icon he is.

   

The Young Pretender

John Terry came very close to not making it as a Chelsea player. He was a midfielder by trade, and with more talented players around him, he was fearful of being released. But then came the epiphany, when Terry was dropped back into defence to cover for injuries.

“At the start of my first YTS season in 1997, I wasn’t selected and I was on the bench for the first three games,” Terry once remembered in a Chelsea magazine interview. “Then, in the fourth game, we played Barnsley at home and one of our centre-halves pulled out. The youth-team manager, Ted Dale, asked me to play there, we won 3-0 and I was probably man of the match.

A 14-year-old John Terry signs his first contract at Chelsea on the pitch at Stamford Bridge with his Mum. pic.twitter.com/iJV3na7IfS

— Football Funnys (@FootballFunnys) October 23, 2014

“It just moved on from there for me. Everyone said how well I’d done, I tried it for a little bit in training and it just seemed natural to me. I stayed at centre-half for the rest of the season and I went on a run of about 10 games where I was just doing really well in the position, then I made the progression into the first team.”

A year after that switch, Terry made his Chelsea debut against Aston Villa in the League Cup, replacing Dan Petrescu as a substitute on October 28, 1998. He make a total of seven appearances that season.

    

The Loan Star

John Terry at Nottingham Forest#nffc #Forest #Loans pic.twitter.com/MCXFCCsmyg

— Football Memories (@footballmemorys) September 22, 2016

After those baby steps when making his debut, Terry became more and more involved in the first team. Still, with World Cup winners Marcel Desailly …

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