Chelsea Captain John Terry Signs One-Year Contract Extension

Chelsea captain and former England international John Terry has signed a new one-year contract at the London club following a third-place finish to the season.

The Chelsea captain, who also played for West Ham as a schoolboy and Nottingham forest on loan, looks set to see out his career at Stamford Bridge. Despite losing a yard or two of pace, he has made 34 league appearances overall this season, compared to just 14 last season.

The return of Jose Mourinho has helped ignite his career it seems, and the partnership Terry has formed with Gary Cahill in the center of defense had some people calling for Terry to be recalled to the England side during this season despite retiring in September 2012.

Any chance of the Englishmen returning to the national side was ruled out by Roy Hodgson earlier on in the year despite Terry`s impressive form. Terry`s International retirement came after 78 caps with a total of six goals for England as well as captaining his country between 2006 an 2010 and again between 2011 and 2012.

Off the field incidents have been noticeable throughout John Terry’s career. In 2001, Terry and three teammates were fined after an incident at Heathrow airport. Later in 2003, Terry, teammate Jody Morris, and a Wimbledon player were charged with assault and affray only for Terry to be eventually cleared, but the biggest controversies were yet to come.

In 2010, several weeks of front page news stories reporting that Terry had an affair with the partner of teammate Wayne Bridge were printed after a high court injunction was lifted, allowing the media to report the allegations. Whilst all the headlines were on Terry, then-England manager Fabio Capello stripped Terry of the captaincy, although Terry was reinstated as captain the following year.

In November of 2011, allegations of racist abuse from Terry towards Queens Park Rangers defender Anton Ferdinand saw him in the headlines for the wrong reasons again and was charged by police for using racist language in December 2011. By February 2012, the FA stripped Terry of the captaincy for the second time pending the outcome of the trial, with Terry entering a not guilty plea and eventually being acquitted in July. The football association and Chelsea charged Terry for the incident and he received a four match ban.

Despite Terry’s controversies, he is Chelsea`s most decorated captain, having won 12 trophies including the Premier League, FA Cup, League Cup, Europa League and Champions league among his 621 appearances.

It was thought Terry wanted a longer contract than the one-year deal he has signed, but Chelsea have a strict policy of only offering one-year contracts to players aged 30 and above. Upon signing the contract, Terry stated, “I’d like to thank the fans and club for their continued support, and the manager who was instrumental for me the last season.”

Written by Ben Armitage