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Chelsea FC - One of England's Greatest Football Teams

 

Chelsea F.C., also called the Blues, are one of the most successful football clubs in England. They were founded in 1905 and have played mostly in England's top Premier League.

The club was first successful in 1955 when it won the League championship for the first time. Two more titles followed in 2005 and 2006. Chelsea won the UEFA Cupwinner's Cup twice and they reached their first final in the Champions League in 2008.

The 70s and 80s were a time of trouble for the club. Many good players were sold, partly because the club needed money to rebuild the Stamford Bridge stadium. During this period hooligans gave the club a bad reputation. The Blues were relegated to the Second Division twice but managed to come back for good in 1989.

 

 

It was not until the mid 1990s that Chelsea once again played an important part in English League football. Ruud Gullit, a famous Dutch player, became manager and brought top class players to London.

In June 2003 Chelsea was sold to Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich for a record 40 million pounds. It was the biggest amount of money spent on an English football club. Abramovich invested over a hundred million pounds over the past years and hired Portugal's star coach Jose Mourinho to manage the team. In the years that followed Chelsea was successful at home, winning the Premiere League twice and the F.A Cup in 2007. But the Portuguese failed to win the big prize for Abramovich, the Champions League.

 

 

Chelsea's home, Stamford Bridge, lies in the southwest of London. The team have never played anywhere else. At first, the stadium had a capacity of 100,000. It was rebuilt in the 1980s and 1990s and today has seats for 42 000 fans.

Chelsea' traditional colors are blue and white. At home they always wear blue shirts and shorts with white socks. The club crest shows a lion holding a staff.

Chelsea holds a number of English and European football records:

  • They scored the highest ever number of points in one season (95).
  • They received the fewest goals in one season (15)
  • They hold the longest series of unbeaten games at home (86 between 2004 and 2006)
  • Chelsea became the first English team to have a starting lineup of all-foreign players.

The current star team includes goalkeeper Petr Cech, midfielder Frank Lampard and striker Didier Drogba. For many football fans the Blues are currently the team with the best and most highly paid footballers in Europe.

 

Related Topics

Words

  • all-foreign = nobody from England
  • amount = sum
  • billionaire = person who has thousands of millions of Euros, dollars or pounds
  • capacity = the number of people who have room in a stadium
  • Champions League = a football competition played each year in which the best European teams take part
  • championship = a series of games in which teams play against each other to find out which is the best
  • coach = trainer
  • crest = a special picture that is used as a symbol
  • Cupwinner's Cup = competition in which the cup winners of every European country took part; this competition no longer exists
  • current = at present, today
  • Dutch = a person from the Netherlands
  • F.A. Cup = the English football cup
  • fail = not to succeed
  • found-founded = to start something
  • hire = to pay someone to work for you
  • lineup = the 11 players who are on the field
  • manage = 1) somehow succeed in doing something 2) to direct or control
  • Premier League = the highest football league in England
  • receive = get
  • record = the highest or best of something
  • relegate = to move to a lower league
  • reputation = the opinion that people have about something or someone
  • score = to make a goal
  • seat = sitting place
  • staff = stick
  • striker = a footballer who plays up front and tries to score goals
  • UEFA = the European Football Association
  • unbeaten = nobody has won against them