John Terry

    Name: John Terry

    Nationality: English

    Date of Birth: 07/12/1980

    Height: 187 cm

    Weight: 90.2 kg

    Previous Clubs: Nottm Forest

    Position: Defender

Chelsea career

Chelsea to the core and a true hero to the fans, John is the most successful captain in Chelsea history and in many eyes, he's the best central defender currently in action.

As brave as they come and a superb reader of the game, sound technique and distribution make him more than just a defenders' defender.

Born in east London, John has been with Chelsea since the age of 14 when he was initially a medium-build midfielder.

Filling in as youth team centre-back one day due to a lack of alternatives, he has never looked back, aided by a rapid growth in physical stature.

A short and successful loan spell at Nottingham Forest helped the maturing process and having taken on board lessons first hand from the likes of Marcel Desailly and Frank Leboeuf, he was voted Chelsea Player of the Year just two seasons after his debut.

He took the captaincy, having understudied Desailly, in 2004 and led the club to the elusive title in his very first year with the armband.

With the Carling Cup also lifted, John became one of only four Chelsea captains to skipper the club to major honours and he more than played his part on the pitch in 2004/05 with a succession of world-class displays and eight crucial goals.

He was voted PFA Player of the Year by his fellow professionals, the first Chelsea winner of the accolade.

John's incredible consistency continued in 2005/06 when injury in the final week robbed him of a full house of Premiership games as he lifted the trophy for a second time.

He scored seven times in all competitions and was voted Chelsea Player of the Year for a second time.

Although he already had well over 300 club appearances to his name, the 2006/07 season was interrupted by prolonged injury as a back problem and related difficulties took time to repair.

However he was back and fighting in plenty of time to become the first to lift the FA Cup at the new Wembley.

Injuries limited him to 37 appearances from a possible 62 in 2007/08. Knee, cheek, foot and elbow injuries all took their toll on the man then manager Avram Grant described as 'bionic', but he was still there barking orders in Moscow in our first Champions League final.

Charged with converting our fifth spot kick in the Luzhniki Stadium to bring the trophy back to London, he slipped on a sodden pitch and saw his effort hit the post.

Held in the highest regard by all at the club, JT bounced back quickly in 2008/09 to lead in new eras under Luiz Felipe Scolari and then Guus Hiddink, his form rarely deviating from outstanding.

A number of defensive performances stood out as the captain maintained his best run of games for some time, despite red cards against Manchester City (rescinded) and Everton.

His greatest hour of the campaign was the near faultless display in the Camp Nou, earning a 0-0 draw against a Barcelona team that had scored freely all season.

Though we were never in the league race after the beginning of February, John still got his hands on silverware as he captained an FA Cup-winning side for the second time.

In 2009/10 JT turned in another season of remarkable consistency in which he was rewarded by becoming the first Chelsea captain to lift the Double.

On the field, Terry did not miss a game through injury, and while others around him suffered with fitness - every other Chelsea defender had a prolonged absence at some point in the season - it was he who played out the entire campaign alongside either Ricardo Carvalho, Branislav Ivanovic or Alex.

Against Manchester United at home, the captain rose highest to head the game's only goal and when headlines about his personal life began to appear, his response was predictable, heading home a winner at Burnley to seize three points.

He was again on the scoresheet to see us into the FA Cup semi-finals. Having lifted his third Premier League trophy a week early, he did the same with the FA Cup after overcoming a metatarsal scare, and almost netted after heading against the crossbar.

His second season under Carlo Ancelotti saw Terry maintain his form when many around him lost theirs during a bad midwinter. Results especially suffered when the skipper was injured for a two-week spell in the November.

Although 2010/11 was a rare one without trophies for John, in the April at home to Spurs he reached a major personal landmark of 500 Chelsea games, only the fifth player to reach that total, and he has been a figure of consistency once more in the current campaign.

Terry's displays were characteristically solid despite a string of injuries in 2011/12, the most serious of which was a knee injury sustained in early January that kept him out for eight games, having played for most of the month while in pain. It was a remarkably speedy return after surgery in February though, that saw him back for the dramatic second-leg win over Napoli, in which he netted a crucial second.

It was his most prolific season in front of goal since the title-winning 2005-06 season and, whether alongside David Luiz, Gary Cahill or Ivanovic, the captain has continued to stand out.

Terry suffered a major blow when he was ruled out of the Champions League Final against Bayern Munich after being dismissed in the semi-final second leg clash with Barcelona. However, he was allowed to lift the trophy alongside Frank Lampard and, after picking up the FA Cup only a matter of weeks earlier, it will go down as another memorable season for the skipper.

In October 2012, Terry was handed a four-match domestic suspension for an incident during a game against Queens Park Rangers almost exactly a year earlier. He was forced to sit out the league games against Tottenham, Manchester United and Swansea, as well as a Capital One Cup clash against United.

His first game back was the home match against Liverpool, and Terry was in involved in the thick of the action, almost from the kick-off. After 20 minutes he rose highest to meet a Juan Mata corner and head us into the lead, but shortly before the break he suffered a nasty injury to his knee following an accidental collision with Luis Suarez.

The injury kept Terry sidelined for two months, but after playing 45 minutes for our Under-21s in a 2-0 win against Fulham at Cobham, he made his first-team return as a late substitute in the 4-0 win at Stoke on 12 January.

Terry then played the full 90 minutes in the 2-2 FA Cup draw with Brentford a few weeks later, before another minor setback kept him sidelined once again. However, he returned to the side for the replay against Brentford and scored the final goal in a 4-0 win.

His goalscoring touch certainly hadn't eluded him, with goals in the games against Southampton and Steaua Bucharest shortly after, as well as a brace in the 3-0 win at Fulham in April.

International

John was handed his England debut in June 2003 against Serbia and Montenegro, and was first choice for his country at Euro 2004 and the 2006 World Cup, taking on the captaincy under Steve McClaren following that tournament.

Chelsea's first homegrown to be capped by England since Ray Wilkins in the mid 70s, Terry became our first England skipper of the professional age, although the armband was taken away by Fabio Capello in February 2010 following media stories about John's private life.

Having already lifted the FA Cup there for his club, John became the scorer of the first international goal at the new Wembley, heading home the opener in England's 1-1 draw with Brazil.

With injury having robbed him of the chance to repair England's faltering Euro 2008 qualifying campaign, he led his country to qualification for the South Africa World Cup in 2010, and played in all four of his country's games, supplying a rare memorable moment in that tournament when he attempted a diving horizontal block, with his head, a mere foot off the ground against Slovenia.

In March 2011 he was reappointed England captain on a full-time basis by Capello, but saw the armband removed once more a year later. He played every game in England's Euro 2012 campaign, impressing as one of the standout performers, but it proved to be his final tournament for the national team.

Terry announced his retirement from international football on 23 September 2012.