John Terry
The future captain of England pulls his socks above his knees
The Observer, May 2006
His manager calls him the best central defender in the world, and unlike many things his manager says this is not a minority view. John Terry is 25, and he has grown up fast. Ten years ago he was a midfielder. Six years ago his future at Chelsea was uncertain. Four years ago he was brawling in nightclubs and risked going to jail. And then he began to realize something important: he had the chance of becoming one of England’s greatest footballers, perhaps the greatest defender since Bobby Moore.
Terry was made captain of Chelsea two seasons ago, and is already looking like a natural successor to David Beckham for the captaincy England. He is a perfect leader, a skill learnt from adversity. His personal qualities – reliability, honesty, fortitude – complement his attributes on the pitch: bonkers bravery, faultless positioning and distribution, a commanding stature in the air, a capacity to remain injury-free, an ability to score crucial goals. And he is undoubtedly the best crunch tackler in modern football, the indomitable lynchpin in Chelsea’s first league title for 50 years. ‘JT’ gives fans something back for their devotion and money: a pure passion, a deep love of victory and hatred of defeat, an unswerving belief that the game is important in people’s lives, and it deserves everything he can give it. This summer in Germany, English hopes depend heavily on him having a great World Cup.
And he possesses another asset, the hardest to obtain: he is liked and respected by other players and non-Chelsea supporters. He shares this quality with his England team-mate Frank Lampard, with whom he has a habit of sharing the big end-of-season awards. But Terry is unique in his homegrown journey from schoolboy to professional, and it means much to him that he came through at a time when Chelsea was buying up the ageing cream of Europe. Perhaps it is this that has strengthened his resolve to remain a one-club player throughout his career.
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