John Terry

John Terry was born on 7 December 1980 in London, England and plays as a center back for Chelsea.

At the age of 11 he entered the West Ham United football academy and spent four years there. During that time John became one of the leading defenders of the youth team and attracted the attention of the best English academies. In 1995 Terry caught an eye of Chelsea scouts who asked him to play a demonstrative game. After that game the management of the club decided to invite John to their youth academy. From 1995 Terry was a Chelsea’s youth academy trainee and in 1998 he got the opportunity to become a professional footballer by signing his first professional contract with Chelsea F.C.

John began to play in the first team, but those appearances were rare and his level was not good enough to be a first team regular, thus he had to go on loan to Nottingham Forest. Terry made 6 starts in that temporary squad during one season.

John returned back to the club right before big changes implemented by Roman Abramovich, the Russian businessman, who bought Chelsea in the beginning of 2000s. Terry became one of the main candidates for the regular play in the first team in 2001-02. The back came up to the expectations of Claudio Ranieri (the club manager at that time), became the key defender of Chelsea F.C. and keeps this position up till now. John is a distinguished captain, centre back and paramount figure in the club that influences various aspects of Chelsea football life. Terry played in 373 games for Chelsea, netting 28 balls.

From 2000 John Terry played in nine matches of the England national U21 football team, scoring one goal. From 2003 John has been the key defender of the England national team where he has already played 90 times and scored 10 goals.