Legends
Petr Čech
- Name
- Petr Čech
- Years at Chelsea
- 2004–2015
- Position
- Goalkeeper
- Honours
- Premier League: 2004–05, 2005–06, 2009–10, 2014–15
- FA Cup: 2006–07, 2008–09, 2009–10, 2011–12
- League Cup: 2004–05, 2006–07, 2014–15
- UEFA Champions League: 2011–12
- UEFA Europa League: 2012–13
- Premier League Golden Glove (with Chelsea): 2004–05, 2009–10, 2013–14
Petr Čech arrived from Rennes in the summer of 2004, barely known outside France, for £7 million, then the most expensive goalkeeper in the club’s history. Within months Mourinho’s Chelsea had the meanest defence the Premier League had seen, and the tall Czech was a big reason why.
In 2004–05 he kept 24 league clean sheets, a Premier League record. Over eleven years he played 494 games with 228 clean sheets, a club record and twenty more than Peter Bonetti.
In October 2006 at Reading, a first-minute collision left him with a depressed skull fracture that doctors later said nearly cost him his life. He came back three months later wearing the headguard that became his trademark.
Then came Munich, 19 May 2012. In extra time he saved Arjen Robben’s penalty. In the shoot-out he stopped two more and opened the way to the club’s first Champions League. Add four league titles, four FA Cups, three League Cups and a Europa League.
‘Big Pete’ was never spectacular for the sake of it. He was the calm behind everyone, the certainty that whatever happened in front of him, there was one last man who would not break.
Sources
- Chelsea FC — Team of 120 (broke Bonetti’s clean-sheet record, Munich penalties)
- Wikipedia — List of Chelsea F.C. players (494 appearances)
- Chelsea FC — Leading appearance-makers (228 clean sheets, 20 more than Bonetti)
- Wikipedia — Petr Čech (move from Rennes, 2006 Reading injury, 24 clean sheets in 2004–05)
- Wikimedia Commons — Petr %C4%8Cech Chelsea 2013.jpg (photo: Warrenfish, CC BY-SA 3.0)
