Chelsea Legends

Jimmy Greaves        

Greaves

James Peter ‘Jimmy’ Greaves (born 20 February 1940) was an English football player, and more recently a television pundit.

Greaves was a phenomenal striker, scoring on his debut for Chelsea in 1957. He finished as top League goalscorer twice whilst at Chelsea in 1959 and 1961 and his 41 league goals in the 1960-61 season remains a club record.

In 1960 he became the youngest ever player to score 100 league goals in English football at the age of 20 years 290 days (and at 23 was the same age as Dixie Dean when he scored his 200th).

He briefly joined the Italian side A.C. Milan in 1961 and scored 9 goals in 12 games but failure to settle led to a quick departure. Bill Nicholson then signed him for Tottenham Hotspur for £99,999. The unusual fee was intended to relieve Greaves of the pressure of being the first £100,000 player.

He played at Spurs from 1961 to 1970, scoring a club record of 266 goals in 379 matches, including 220 goals in the First Division. Greaves finished as top League goalscorer in four seasons (1963, 1964, 1965 and 1969), an achievement that established Greaves as arguably the most consistent striker in English football history. His record of finishing top goalscorer in six seasons has never been matched.

With Spurs, Greaves won the FA Cup in 1962 and 1967, scoring against Burnley in the former. He also won the European Cup Winners Cup in 1963 – scoring twice in the famous 5-1 defeat of Atletico Madrid, ensuring that Spurs became the first British club to win a European trophy.

Greaves won his first England cap in 1959, and went on to play 57 times and score 44 goals, five less than Bobby Charlton but at a much higher rate. He remains third in the all-time list of England goalscorers, behind Charlton and Gary Lineker. Greaves also hold the record for most hat-tricks for England – six in all.

In the 1962 World Cup finals match against Brazil in Chile, a stray dog ran on to the pitch and evaded all of the players’ efforts to catch it until Greaves got down on all fours to beckon the animal. Though successful in catching the dog, it managed to urinate all over Greaves’ England shirt. The Brazilian player Garrincha thought the incident was so amusing that he took the dog home as a pet.

Greaves was the first-choice striker for the England team during the 1966 World Cup but suffered a leg injury during a game against France and had to be replaced. That replacement, Geoff Hurst, scored the winner in the quarter final against Argentina and kept his place all the way to the final, famously scoring a hat-trick as England won the tournament.

One of football’s most famous photographs shows the elation on the England bench as the final whistle was blown, except for Greaves, in his suit and tie, looking astonished at what had happened. Greaves has always maintained that he felt nothing but delight at England’s win and celebrated as much as the other non-playing members of the squad. He also maintains that he never felt he had a divine right to be in the side once he regained his fitness

 

 

Gianfranco Zola

Club: Chelsea

Shirt Number: 25

Position: Forward

Date of Birth: July 5, 1966

Birthplace: Oliena, Sardinia

Height: 5′ 6″      

Arrived at Chelsea in November 1997, turning in a series of devastating displays which eventually won him the Player of the Year award for the 1996/97 season.
He was Maradona’s successor at Napoli, and became known in Italy for his free-kicks. Indeed, he held the record for free-kick goals in Serie A until his record was broken by Sinisa Milhailjovic in 1999/2000.

Continued his great form in 1997/98, scoring the winner in the European Cup Winner’s Cup Final and cementing his place in Chelsea history.

However his performances in 1998/99 and 1999/2000 were punctuated by a singular lack of goals and a loss of confidence.

Talk was of his return to Italy but he stayed to fight for his place with the new arrivals at Stamford Bridge. Kept his place in the first team for the 2000/01 season, but the following campaign Eidur Gudjohnsen had grabbed his starting place.

Even so, many will forever remember his outrageous side-foot-cum-backheel against Norwich City in an FA Cup tie that season that set the competition alight.

Zola considered, long and hard, returning to Italy in the summer of 2002. The player declared it was time to do what his family wanted after they had followed him for so many years.

In the end, Zola extended his contract at Stamford Bridge and even started to take on coaching duties. By then he had played 266 games for Chelsea, scoring 64 goals.

His honours with the Blues include winners’ medals in the FA Cup in 1997 and 2000, League Cup, European Cup Winners’ Cup and European Super Cup in 1998 and Charity Shield in 2000.

Also picked up runners-up medals in the Charity Shield in 1997 and the FA Cup in 2002

Peter Leslie Osgood                     Chelsea
Born in Windsor, Osgood was signed by Chelsea as a junior and made his debut as a 17 year-old in the League Cup, scoring both goals in a 2-0 win against Workington Town on December 16 1964. The buzz surrounding the tall, skilful teenager’s goalscoring for the club’s reserves – 30 goals in 20 games going into that month – was already immense and it was only a matter of time before he became a regular first-teamer.

Following an end-of-season tour of Australia during which Osgood scored 12 times in eight games, the centre-forward’s next senior match was the September 22 1965 4-1 victory over AS Roma in the Inter-City Fairs Cup (a violent encounter dubbed “the Battle of the Bridge”). A run in the league followed, bringing seven goals, including one involving a 60-yard run past a trail of Burnley players.

The teenager was soon hailed as a possible late call-up for Alf Ramsey’s 1966 World Cup squad and was taken to the hearts of the Chelsea faithful, who nicknamed him “the Wizard of Os”.

A broken leg suffered in a challenge by Blackpool’s Emlyn Hughes in the League Cup on October 6, 1966 seriously curtailed his progress, and he missed Chelsea’s first-ever Wembley FA Cup final on May 20, 1967. Without him “the Blues” lost to Tottenham Hotspur 1-2.

It was a major disappointment for this big-stage player yet Ossie returned from the injury and equally graceful – if tougher – player. His vision and physical presence were recognised by new manager Dave Sexton playing him often as a midfielder, but it is a goalscoring centre-forward that he is best remembered.

In total, Osgood made 380 appearances for The Blues, scoring 150 goals. He was one of only nine players to score in every round of the FA Cup (and, to date, the last to do so), helping Chelsea to victory in a replayed final against Leeds United in 1970. He scored the equaliser at Old Trafford with a diving header as his side eventually won 2-1.

In 1971 Osgood was part of the Chelsea team which lifted the European Cup Winners’ Cup defeating Real Madrid 2-1 in Athens, where he scored Chelsea’s second, decisive, goal. In 1972, he scored for Chelsea in the League Cup final but they lost 1-2 to Stoke City

Osgood made his England debut in February 1970 in a 3-1 win over Belgium. He was a member of the 1970 World Cup squad, making two appearances against Czechoslovakia and Romania as a substitute. He won a total of four international caps for England, without scoring.

After football Osgood’s life never lacked incident. For a time in the early 1980s he ran a pub in Windsor, the Union Inn, with his old strike partner Ian Hutchinson but it was an ill-starred venture. As one of its favourite sons he was dismayed to be banned from Stamford Bridge, along with many of his 1970s colleagues, by chairman Ken Bates for perceived criticism of the club in the 1990s. In 2003 he was grateful to the Abramovich regime for his rehabilitation, and returned to his role as a hospitality host on matchdays.

Prior to his death on March 1 following a heart attack at a family funeral, he was involved in football related media work and was well known on the after dinner speaker circuit. Three weeks before his death he had enjoyed a standing ovation when presented to the Stamford Bridge crowd at half-time of a match.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

 

 

Peter Leslie Osgood holding a football

(February 20, 1947 – March 1, 2006) was an English footballer in the 1960s and 1970s.