Chelsea’s Greatest Foreign XI of all time

Chelsea have had many great foreign players to tread the turf at Stamford Bridge and famously became the first club to field an all-foreign starting XI against Southampton way back in 1999.

So, as a follow up to my Chelsea’s Greatest Ever British XI of all time I have decided to do a team of overseas Blues players from the past and present. Due to the vast array of talented foreign names which have passed through the club over the years it has made this XI hard to produce, but I have done my best to narrow it down and here are the players I opted for after much discussion with a few of my followers on Twitter:

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Goalkeeper: Petr Cech

The Czech stopper was relatively unknown by many Premier League fans when he moved to west London from Rennes as Claudio Ranieri decided he wanted him as Carlo Cudicini’s understudy. But it wasn’t long until he become an established first-team regular when the club’s #1 keeper suffered an injury in pre-season ahead of the 2004/05 Premier League campaign and new manager Jose Mourinho promoted former Rennes player to the starting line-up, a spot he held onto. Cech currently holds a record of fewest appearances to achieve 100 clean sheets (180 games) and during his debut season he held a record of 1,025 minutes without conceding a goal, but that record was eventually surpassed by Edwin van der Sar in January 2009.

Left Back: William Gallas

Not the most popular face amongst the Stamford Bridge faithful today following his acrimonious move to Arsenal, which involved Ashley Cole coming the other way. However, although he isn’t a natural left-back and was replaced by a much better player in that position, he was an integral part of Chelsea’s back-to-back title winning sides under Mourinho and held onto his spot despite the purchase of Asier del Horno for £8m. His behaviour before leaving the club and continued petulance is questionable, but I think it’s better to remember the positives like his injury-time winner in a 2-1 victory over Tottenham during the 2005/06 Premier League season.

Centre Back: Marcel Desailly

Voted alongside John Terry in Chelsea’s greatest ever XI and I think the 1998 World Cup winner with France played centre-back for the Blues from 1998 to the end of the 2003/04 Premier League season. Not only was it a major boost for Chelsea to acquire a talent who had won everything in the game but I also believe having Desailly at the club helped Terry to become one of the best defenders in Europe. ‘Le Rock’ only managed to win one major honour during his time in west London in the 2000 FA Cup final, but he also won the 1998 UEFA Super Cup and the 2000 Charity Shield with Chelsea. Desailly played 222 times for the the Blues, scored seven goals and earned 74 international caps whilst at Chelsea (a record which has been recently passed by Frank Lampard).

Centre Back: Frank Leboeuf

It was a hard decision for me to omit Ricardo Carvalho from this list, but I have opted for another Frenchman in the defence and not just because of his successful partnership with Desailly. The former France international was a cultured player with an impressive passing range and rather oddly for a centre half took penalties for the club. Whilst at Chelsea he scored 24 goals in 200 games, most of which were of course from the penalty spot (he only missed three times).

Right Back: Dan Petrescu

Known as Dan ‘Pet Rescue’ to fans had a genuine affection for the club and was a prominent fixture at the club for five years (1995-2000). During his time at the club he was pretty successful in terms of winning silverware as he added the FA Cup (1997), League Cup (1998) and the Cup Winners’ Cup (1998), UEFA Super Cup (1998) to his list of honours. Whereas the other defenders I selected in this list are known mainly for their defensive attributes Petrescu is more of an attack-minded fullback who scored a few decent goals for Chelsea, like the one against Arsenal which one the 1998 League Cup semi-final.