For more than a decade, the phrase ‘doing a John Terry’ has done the rounds in football circles.
If you’ve been living under a rock since 2012, this refers to Chelsea’s maiden Champions League triumph, where the former Blues skipper was front and centre of his team’s trophy lift, in a complete full kit, despite having been suspended for the final.
Terry - who was ranked as the best Chelsea player of all-time by FourFourTwo - was issued with a red card eight minutes before half-time in the second leg of Chelsea’s epic semi-final victory over Barcelona for clashing off the ball with Alexis Sanchez, which ruled him out of the final against Bayern Munich, played in their Allianz Arena home.
Terry on his full-kit moment
Coming four years after Chelsea had lost on penalties to Manchester United in the 2008 Champions League final, the match in Munich was another tense affair.
The hosts had the best of the chances but were unable to find a way past Petr Cech in the Blues goal. Finally, the deadlock was broken when Thomas Muller headed home a Toni Kroos cross in the 83rd minute, but Didier Drogba levelled the scores five minutes later.
Extra time followed and Chelsea clung on, with Cech saving an Arjen Robben penalty, meaning that the match was settled on spot kicks, with Drogba netting the deciding penalty.
Wild celebrations followed, including Terry’s emergence from the stands, wearing full kit.
“I’ve taken the full brunt of this!,” Terry tells FourFourTwo. “I absolutely don’t regret wearing it.
“And people need to know: we had a letter from UEFA about it. When Man United won it in 1999, Roy Keane and Paul Scholes were suspended and wore suits to the game.
“UEFA didn’t like that. Their direct message to us was that every player, regardless of whether they were in the team that night, had to be in full kit.
“Branislav Ivanovic and Paulo Ferreira were also suspended and they did it, too. But I take the stick, as always. I was in full kit: boots, shinpads, captain’s armband – the lot. And I’d do it again.”
