Centre Back: John Terry-1998-current
Captain, leader and legend. John Terry has been a loyal player at the club for his entire career.
Starting his senior career for Chelsea in 1998, he has played for Chelsea ever since for 18 years. Excluding one insignificant loan spell at Nottingham Forest in 2000 where he made six appearances).
He originally joined Chelsea as a youth player at the age of 14-years-old.
Terry is considered one of the greatest central defenders ever and has every major trophy playing for Chelsea.
The Englishman has made 713 total appearances for the club while scoring 66 goals. He is a central defender. Let that statistic sink in.
While he’s still currently at the club, taking up a bench position now, it’s doubtful he’ll reach the 1000 appearances mark. His contract runs out at the end of this season and he’s likely to leave or retire.
But 713 appearances (so far) is still astounding. You don’t see many players these days staying at one club for their entire career (except Totti, Steven Gerrard etc).
He is a player from another generation but has managed to lead and captain the club for more than a decade.
Terry was made captain of the club by Jose Mourinho in 2004 and that decision was clearly a good one as thy went on to win two consecutive Premier League titles.
I won’t list the trophies he’s won at the club as he’s literally won everything.
However, on an individual level; he’s won the Chelsea player of the year award twice, the PFA players player of the year (04/05), PFA team of the year four times, and has been listed in many more various team of the year trophies including in Europe.