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John Terry’s seven best center-back partners at Chelsea

By on January 31, 2016

John Terry was the last man off the pitch today, per usual, as Chelsea beat MK Dons 5-1 in the FA Cup.  At the age of thirty-five, he’s also the last remaining starter for Chelsea from that great generation of title-winners during Jose Mourinho’s first term at Stamford Bridge.

Today, he announced that this season will be his last at the club.  He has appeared alongside more than twenty different center-back partners over the years. Here’s a brief look back at his seven best partnerships:

Marcel Desailly (at Chelsea between 1998-2004)

Ghana-born, French international Marcel Desailly helped shepherd Terry into Chelsea’s starting eleven way back in the late 90s under Gianluca Vialli and later, Claudio Ranieri.  The pair made ninety-six starts together at center-back before Desailly moved on to Qatari club Al-Gharafa towards the latter end of his career in 2004.

The world-cup winning defender was captain when Terry made his way into the first team and the Englishman remembers of Desailly, per Mail Online: “[Desailly] would stand there, in the team line-up, and say to me: ‘John, listen to this Champions League music, this is what you want to hear season after season,’ and he was excited.  Even now I’ve got goose bumps on my legs – I will never forget those nights standing alongside Desailly in this competition.”

William Gallas (2001-2006)

William Gallas was Terry’s center-back partner during Chelsea’s first two Premier League titles in the 2004/2005 and 2005/2006 seasons.  He played alongside Terry 186 times from 2001 to 2006, including one run of sixteen games without conceding a goal, and also filled in at right-back, which he would play at Arsenal later in his career.

After a rift with then-manager Guus Hiddink in the summer of 2006, in which he appeared in the FIFA World Cup final for France, Gallas departed the club for Arsenal.  He then moved to Tottenham Hotspur before finishing his career at Perth Glory in Australia two years ago.

Ricardo Carvalho (2001-2010)

Portuguese center-back Ricardo Carvalho formed a formidable partnership with Terry at the back during perhaps the Englishman’s most trying and controversial times of his career between 2004 and 2010. Carvalho stepped up to the vacant role that Desailly left after waiting in the wings for a few years and made 158 appearances alongside Terry.  Many regard their partnership as the most dominant that Terry has ever had.

Jose Mourinho built his successes on their chemistry in his first spell at Chelsea and Carvalho used it as a springboard to move to Real Madrid in 2010.  He is currently on the books at Monaco.

Alex (2004-2012)

Brazilian international Alex intermittently played with Terry at the back for eight years from 2004, but never truly managed to establish himself as a starter at the Bridge.  Known as “the tank” for his intimidating physical demeanor, Alex handed in a transfer request in 2012 to move to Paris Saint-Germain and currently plays for AC Milan at the age of thirty-three.

David Luiz (2011-2014)

Terry once dubbed Brazilian star David Luiz as his heir apparent at Chelsea during their three years playing alongside each other from 2011.  Luiz led Chelsea’s back-line in their 2012 UEFA Champions League final triumph over Bayern Munich, a game Terry regrettably missed due to suspension.  The defender is also at the core of Brazil’s current national team and is known for his bullish attacking style.

However, he left Chelsea without a single Premier League title for Paris Saint-Germain in 2014, becoming the world’s most expensive defender in the process.

Gary Cahill (2012-)

Moving to Chelsea from Bolton Wanderers in 2012, Gary Cahill has been Terry’s most underrated center-back partner in his long career at the Bridge.  They have played alongside each other more than a hundred times and they were a cornerstone of Jose Mourinho’s title winning team last season.

Kurt Zouma (2014-)

At the age of only twenty-one, Kurt Zouma has already made thirty-five appearances for Chelsea after moving from Saint-Etienne in 2014, and will undoubtedly replace Terry as a starter when the former captain of England leaves this summer.  Zouma has slowly been integrated into the first team over the past year-and-a-half and was voted Chelsea’s Young Player of the Year last season.

Homepage photo credit: Julian Mason, via Flickr

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.