The Weekend Interview: Didier Drogba and Eden Hazard Two of John Terry ’s team-mates pay tribute to his captaincy on the day he leads Chelsea for the 500 time… ‘Only 500? I don’t know why we are talking about this now if it is only 500 games!’ queries Didier Drogba with an air of seriousness, before breaking into a big smile. ‘It is a big, big achievement!’ he quickly adds. ‘Only big players with a big mentality, true leaders can achieve these kind of goals, and I am not surprised because he started young as a captain of Chelsea Football Club.’ The striker with 347 appearances of his own for the club is talking about the remarkable milestone John Terry will reach today on leading the team out at Selhurst Park. It will be the 500 time he has begun a Chelsea game as captain, the first being way back in December 2001 - a home match against another side from south London, Charlton Athletic. Marcel Desailly was the full-time club captain at the time and Terry would take the armband on further occasions when the France World Cup-winner was not in the team. Desailly left in 2004, the same summer Drogba and Jose Mourinho arrived at Chelsea. ‘I remember when we had our first meeting in Seattle at the start of pre- season, Jose was introducing himself and his staff and he was saying okay, John Terry was a captain last season and I think we should keep him as the captain,’ recalls the Ivorian. ‘Everybody said okay and for me it was like he had been the captain for ages already. With Jose you had the confirmation he was going to be the one we are going to follow for the next 10 or 15 years. ‘To keep the trust of the manager means a lot, it means you have been a brilliant captain and you have been giving everything to the players because to be captain is more than being a player with an armband, it means you have to help your team-mates, on the pitch and off the pitch. ‘There is the player and there is the man, and the man I have a lot of respect for too because from the day I first came onto the team bus he was there to help me. I always say “my captain” and he is the one.’ It was a much more experienced John Terry who Eden Hazard was introduced to as skipper when the young Belgian moved to Stamford Bridge in 2012, and one by now with an immense track record for winning. A major part of the boy from Barking’s captaincy has been leading by example on the pitch. ‘I remember a game against Steaua Bucharest in the Europa League; we lost the first leg 1-0,’ says Hazard, recalling his first season at Chelsea. ‘In the home game it was 1-1 and John scored a brilliant header. You could see in his eyes the passion he has, it was a very important goal for us and it helped drive the team on, we ended up winning the game 3-1. ‘It’s not just on the pitch, it’s off it as well, but of course on the pitch he is very important. I remember reading in the newspaper about the time he went in goal [against Reading in 2006], which shows he will give everything for the team.’ Hazard arrived at Chelsea with only a small grasp of the English language but Terry made sure he spoke to him in that first week in manner he could understand - simple instructions, telling Hazard to take pleasure from what he did on the pitch and try to win matches in the same way he did in France. ‘It was very good for me to hear that because I was new and a little bit nervous. When you come to a new country it’s hard, but he helped me settle. ‘He is a very good captain; he still works as though he is a young player just starting out in the game. He’s the first player out on to the training pitch and the last player to leave, which is very good for the younger players like myself. He gives me a lot of inspiration and he’s a fantastic professional.’ Drogba explains how Terry has always been willing to call on other senior players to help with captaincy duties and with bringing together a multicultural dressing room. ‘It is what the captain is all about as well, telling the truth to players, helping them to work together and to improve as a team. John is always thinking about the team first. ‘It is easy to lead the team when we are winning and everything is going well, but when we are in difficult moments, in troubled times, that is when you see a great captain and John was an inspiration for me when I was going to the national team. I would sometimes use what I saw from him and try to reproduce it when I was captain in my national team. ‘This Champions League final, we won it for him as well,’ says Drogba, as he reflects on the trophies lifted in their time at Chelsea, ‘because after the drama of Moscow I know how he felt because I felt the same that day. ‘That is why for me to score this goal and for us to win the Champions League was fantastic. You could see John’s face, he was running and was one of the first to jump over me - so that is our team spirit, that is what he created and I think he deserved it more than anyone here.’
Posted on: Mon, 20 Oct 2014 22:05:55 +0000
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