Chelsea F.C.
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Chelsea Football Club (also known as the
Blues, previously also known as the
Pensioners) was founded in 1905, is a
Premier League football team that plays at
Stamford Bridge football ground in west
London.
In early
2003,
Gianfranco Zola was voted as the best ever player of the team by the Chelsea
fans.
In
July 2003, Chelsea was acquired by
Roman Abramovich, a
Russian billionaire. British
tabloids immediately dubbed the club
Chelski. Abramovich used his fortune to wipe out the club's substantial debts at a stroke, and then directed funds towards the acquisition of new players. New signings for the start of the
2003/04 season included the
Irish left winger
Damien Duff, the Cameroon international right-sided midfielder Njitap Geremi, French midfielder Claude Makelele who joined from
Real Madrid the Argentinian striker
Hernán Crespo, promising English youngsters Wayne Bridge, Glen Johnson and
Joe Cole and the Argentinian midfielder
Juan Sebastian Veron, who was out of favour at
Manchester United. During the
christmas transfer period the young English midfielder
Scott Parker joined after having impressed during the first half of the season at
Charlton Athletic. Despite finishing runners-up in
Premier League during the 2003-2004 season, and reaching the semi finals of the
Champions League manager
Claudio Ranieri was sacked on 31 May 2004.
José Mourinho was appointed as Manager and Coach on 2 June 2004, one week after managing
FC Porto to the
Champions League title.
With the recent signings of Didier Drogba,
Mateja Kezman,
Paulo Ferreira,
Ricardo Carvalho and
Arjen Robben, among others, Abramovich's spending on players since purchasing the club has now exceeded £200 million.
Honours
Famous players
