Some players are emotionally attached to their former clubs and that is what the topic of today’s story is – Frank Lampard’s incredible journey.
Frank Lampard (Full Name – Frank James Lampard) was born on 20 June 1978 at Romford, United Kingdom to a professional football (his father). He and his two sisters – Clarie Lampard and Natalie Lampard used to live with their parents – Frank Lampard Sr. and Patricia Lampard. He is one of Chelsea’s greatest player that the club would never forget.
He is the top scorer for Chelsea even till now, with 211 goals in all the competitions. He is considered as England’s most prolific penalty taker. Often considered as the best player in the world by some of the players like Jose Mourinho and Luiz Filipe Scolari, Frank has made the second highest Premier League appearances (609) after Ryan Giggs (632). He is also the fourth highest goal scorer in the same league.
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As being one of the greatest mid-fielders of his generations, he started his career for his father’s former club – West Ham United, where he joined the youth team in 1994.
He was signed by the club in 1995 but made his debut with Swansea City in October as a loan player. After a season with Swansea, he played his first match for ‘The Hammers’ against Arsenal in 1996. With two successful seasons for West Ham, he helped the club to reach the fifth position in the 1998-99 PL season and qualify for the UEFA Intertoto Cup.
Along with the Intertoto cup, the club entered UEFA Cup in 1999-2000. Though the club gave a poor performance in 2000-01 season, he was the third top scorer with 9 goals.
In June 2001, Chelsea signed Frank as a mid-fielder, which came out to be a breakthrough for them. On 19 August 2001, he made his debut for Chelsea against Newcastle United. The club was named ‘The PFA Team of the Year’ and Frank was gained the second place for ‘The FWA Footballer of the Year’ award.
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In 2005, he helped Chelsea to win the PL and was announced as ‘The Footballer of the Year’ in the same year. Due to his injury, he was only able to play 40 matches with the club, but still managed to win the ‘UEFA Club Mid-fielder of the Year’. Chelsea extended his contract on August 13, 2008, which made him the second highest paid PL player.
In October 2009, he was nominated for the ‘FIFA World Player of the Year‘ award for the sixth consecutive year. He also helped his team win the PL title that season and the 2010 FA Cup.
On May 15, 2013, he captained his team in UEFA Europa League final, in which they defeated Benfica by 2-1 to lift the title. With these sensational seasons for Chelsea, he left the club in 2014 and joined New York City F.C in Major League Soccer (MLS).
Talking about his international career, then he made his debut for under-21 England national football team on November 13, 1997. He played his first match for England’s national team on October 10, 1999.
Coming back to his most beloved club, he is the head coach of Chelsea now and seems that the club is going to do better than previous seasons.
Frank Lampard is a living legend but not many people know about him as a player but as a football manager currently.
This was the short life description about him. You will read about Gianluigi Buffon in the next story.
