Biography and career of a football player
John Terry's childhood and youth were typical for the middle class of English society - comprehensive school, playing football at an amateur level. And if Chelsea scouts had not paid attention to Terry in one of the amateur league matches, he would have remained an ordinary London guy, working five days a week, and attending matches of his favorite team on the weekend.
Chelsea
1998-2017
Once in the London club system, Terry, thanks to his perseverance and hard work, stood out from the crowd of many boys who played for teams of various ages, and was able to break into the main team.
October 28, 1998 - the day of John Terry's debut for Chelsea, he came on as a substitute in the League Cup match against Aston Villa. Then there were two seasons spent on the bench and a six-month loan at Nottingham Forest, where Terry also sat on the bench for most of the matches.
The 2000-2001 season was a turning point, when Claudio Ranieri began to trust the young footballer with a place in the base. At that time, Chelsea did not yet have such financial opportunities, and its destiny was to fight for a place in the UEFA Cup. But in 2003, Chelsea finished fourth in the table and qualified for the Champions League.
And in the off-season, another event happened - the club was acquired by Roman Abramovich and began to invest money in it that was unprecedented at that time. John Terry was one of the few players from the old squad who remained in the team, as he fully corresponded to the ambitions of the new owner. In its first season, the new Chelsea finished second in the championship, losing to the phenomenal Arsenal, which went through the Premier League without defeat, and reached the semi-finals of the Champions League.
This result did not suit Abramovich and Ranieri was replaced by the newly crowned Champions League winner, Portuguese Jose Mourinho. From that moment a new era in the history of Chelsea began.
By the way, it was under Mourinho that John Terry became the captain of Chelsea - before that, the Frenchman Marcel Desailly was captain, and John only replaced him in this role. And this season was perhaps the best in Terry’s career - Chelsea became champions, conceding only 15 goals and setting a Premier League record for the number of clean sheets, and John himself was awarded the title of best player in the Premier League and best defender in the Champions League.
In addition to performing his immediate duties, John Terry showed himself well in front of the opponent’s goal, hitting them eight times in the season, including scoring the winning goal in the championship match against Barcelona.
In general, John Terry's goals are a topic for a separate discussion; he scored more than 70 goals in official matches alone, being the most productive defender in the Premier League and one of the best defender-scorers in the world.
This continued for more than ten seasons - no matter who coached Chelsea: Jose Mourinho, Guus Hiddink, Carlo Ancelotti, Roberto di Matteo, the unbending John Terry, or JT, as the club's fans called him, brought the captain's armband onto the field. However, the essence of John Terry’s game is better reflected by his other nickname - “Iron Man” (alternatively - “Iron John”).
But there were moments in Terry's career that he would rather not remember. Of course, this is the Moscow 2008 Champions League final against Manchester United, when Terry slipped while taking the penalty kick in the shootout. For some reason, many people read that this is what led to the defeat of the Blues. Not at all, with this shot Terry could have brought victory to his team, and after his miss the series continued, but was ended after Nicolas Anelka’s mistake.
However, everything could have ended even earlier if John Terry had not saved the ball in extra time, flying into the goal of the already helpless Peter Cech after a shot from Ryan Giggs.
And John Terry missed the 2012 final that was victorious for Chelsea due to disqualification. In the semi-finals, he let his team down badly by committing a simply hooligan act - in a harmless situation, out of the blue, John Terry kicked Alexis Sanchez, receiving a well-deserved red card. The score was 1:0 in favor of Barça (1:1 on aggregate) and there was still more game time to go. But the team then played for their captain, and despite all the circumstances, reduced that match to a draw - 2:2.
- CHELSEA WINNER OF THE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE 2012.
But all this was a real captain who always fought for himself, for his partners, for the club.
34-year-old John Terry played the entire 2014-2015 season, in which Chelsea won their sixth league title. He was part of the team in the last championship season for the Londoners. True, under Antonio Conte, Terry was no longer a starter, replacing Gary Cahill, David Luiz and Cesar Azpilicueta, who dropped out due to injuries and suspensions.
There were no hard feelings here, everyone understood that time takes its toll, and Terry remained the team captain to the end. Chelsea said a nice goodbye to their captain - on May 21, 2020, in a match against Sunderland at Stanford Bridge, John Terry led the team onto the field for the last time. To the applause of the stands, he was replaced in the 26th minute - after all, this was the number that the indomitable captain always had.
While delivering his farewell speech, John Terry could not hold back his tears.
“I’ll be back here again,”
the captain promised the fans.
England team
2003-2012
John Terry played his first match for the national team on June 3, 2003, and three years later became its captain. He has two European championships and two world championships under his belt as part of the England team, but at these tournaments the English never made it past the quarter-finals, being eliminated three times in penalty shootouts. By the way, in this series JT came to the point only once - at Euro 2004 and was accurate.
Parting with the national team was not very pleasant. In general, several scandals were associated with the name of John Terry, which I will discuss below. Now - about his parting with the England team.
In 2011, Anton Ferdinand, the brother of Terry's then England center back partner Rio Ferdinand, accused Terry of racism, claiming that John had called him a "black" during a match. John himself denied everything.
The court acquitted him, but the football association suspended Terry for four matches and imposed a large fine on him. This story continued - Terry said that the suspicions of football officials after the court's acquittal made his presence in the national team impossible and announced the end of playing for the national team.
“I had three dreams in life: to get into the England team, become captain and play 100 matches for England. I was very close to the third goal, but the scandal in 2012 put an end to my career in the national team. I dreamed of playing my hundredth game and leaving the national team with honors, because for the sake of it I had more than once broken bones, torn ligaments and sacrificed my health. I won’t hide: I regret that it all ended this way,”
John Terry will say.
After such words, there will be many who want to feel sorry for John, but I think that he does not need it - it was his decision, the decision of a real man, which Iron John has always been.
Biography
On the seventh day of December 1980, John George Terry was born in the capital of England, London.
From early childhood he became interested in football; Terry loved watching sports programs and supported Manchester United. But what he liked even more was playing football himself. His parents sent him to a school that had a football team that played in a Sunday amateur league. The future star John Terry took his first steps to the world level there, with the full support of his family. As a child and teenager, Terry played in the midfield position and was a destroyer. In 1991, the gifted youngster was invited to the academy of the London club West Ham United, where he continued to play in midfield. The talented football player quickly progressed and began to attract the attention of scouts from top Premier League clubs. The management of many clubs set their selectors the task of getting a promising player at any cost. The first to achieve the goal were the scouts of the capital's Chelsea. At the time of his transfer to one of the best clubs in England, John was only 14 years old.
John Terry titles
Team
- Five-time English champion.
- Five-time FA Cup winner.
- Three-time winner of the English League Cup.
- Two-time winner of the English Super Cup.
- Champions League winner.
- Winner of the Europa League.
Individual
- Best player in the Premier League 2005.
- Best European Defender 2005, 2008 and 2009.
Scandals involving John Terry
A story about John Terry would not be complete without mentioning the scandals associated with his name. As they say, you can’t throw out the words of their songs. The most famous of them is, of course, an affair with model Vanessa Perroncel, the wife of Wayne Bridge, Terry’s long-time partner in Chelsea and the England national team. After these facts surfaced in the press, Bridge refused to play for the national team with John, and Terry himself was temporarily deprived of the captain's armband in the England team.
At the beginning of his career, John Terry, along with other Chelsea players, including Frank Lampard, insulted American tourists while drunk at the airport. It was after the September 11 terrorist attacks, and the scandal was barely hushed up - the players got off with a fine and a public apology.
In 2002, John Terry spent one day in jail because of a fight in a nightclub, but was released on bail.
In 2010, Terry, having received £10,000 from journalists, took them to the Chelsea club base, essentially giving them a tour and introducing them to several of the team's players.
You can also remember such “little things” as an affair with a 17-year-old fan, a fine for parking in a disabled space and much more, you can’t list it all.
By the way, due to scandals, John Terry could not publish his autobiography for a long time - the publishing house postponed the book’s publication date several times.
Scandals in Terry's personal life
As mentioned above, John Terry admitted that there were other girls in his personal life while he was already dating Tony.
Nikola Ulian
Nicola was known as a participant in adult films. The football player was not embarrassed by her reputation, nor by the fact that the woman was several years older than him. Their romance was quite long, but it is worth mentioning that Nicola was completely confident that John had no one but her. However, this turned out to be a hoax. At that time, Terry was already in a relationship with Toni, whom he promised to marry.
Nikola Ulian
Karina Clark
John Terry also began his next affair with a porn actress. Her name was Karina Clark. She starred for Playboy TV.
Karina Clark
The acquaintance happened in a bar, where both had a lot of drinks. As a result, by morning they ended up in the same bed. Unlike the previous affair, there was no question of any feelings on the part of John or Karina. They only had a few pleasant times in each other's company. But this hardly justifies the betrayal of Toni, whom John had been dating for more than four years.
Shalimar Wimble
Terry met the model who shocked his imagination at a party. He attended the event with Wayne Bridge, who then still considered John a friend. The football player treated Shalimar to a cocktail, and then spent a long time trying to persuade her to spend the night with him, but the model did not agree. She understood that this was an invitation for one night and did not want to get involved in any adventures. Terry left with nothing, but three months later he met Shalimar Wimble again, and then she could no longer resist his charisma. They dated for only a few months before the mistress found out about Terry's fiancee.
Then she left him with the words: “I feel sorry for his fiancee.”
Jenny Barker
This story, in terms of its scandalousness, was almost equal to the one associated with Vanessa Perroncel. A seventeen-year-old fan approached her idol to ask for an autograph, and instead of the usual signature, he gave her his phone number.
Terry signs autographs
Of course, Jenny was over the moon and soon wrote to him. A few months later they were sitting in the back seat of his Bentley and kissing. For obvious reasons, Terry claims they didn't hook up at the time.
Interesting Facts
- John's older brother Terry Paul is also a footballer, but played at amateur and semi-professional level for Thurrock FC of the Isthmian League North Division (the eighth tier of the English football league system).
- In official matches for the England national team, John Terry scored only one goal - in the 2010 World Cup qualifying match against the Ukrainian national team.
- John Terry's goal against Brazil on 1 June 2007 was England's first at the new Wembley.
- John Terry played 715 matches for Chelsea, which is the third most in the club's history.
- In the 2007 League Cup final against Arsenal, John Terry suffered a terrible facial injury - he tried to head the goal, but Abou Diaby, knocking the ball, kicked him in the head. In an unconscious state, Terry was taken to the hospital, and Abu Diaby could not play due to shock and asked for a replacement.
- John Terry also had to play in goal. It was in October 2006 in the same match with Reading where Peter Cech received a terrible injury. His replacement, Carlo Cudicini, was also injured and John Terry took over for Chelsea. The match ended with a minimal victory for the Blues 1:0.
- In his 700th appearance for Chelsea in January 2020, John Terry first scored an own goal, but then saved the team from defeat by scoring against Everton in the 8th minute of added time.
After saying goodbye to Chelsea, John Terry said that he felt strong enough to play and was not going to retire. It is not known where he will play, but according to the footballer himself, it will not be the Premier League, because he will never be able to take the field against his native Chelsea.
Very soon we will find out where John Terry will continue his career, but for now I regret to note the departure of the last Chelsea legend from that glorious generation of Frank Lampard, Peter Cech, Didier Drogba, who were the basis, soul and symbol of the club.
