Frank Lampard is the ultimate professional footballer!! There, I said it as I brace for the onslaught.
From his early career with West Ham United, 1995 to 2001, he made 148 appearances for the Hammers scoring 24 times along the way. He also had a brief 9-game loan spell in between at Swansea City scoring a single goal. His career really went sky high and took off when he made the 11million pound move to London rival’s Chelsea, making his Blues debut in a 1-1 draw against Newcastle.
Lampard is a player with unbelievably durability, playing every Premiership game for three seasons between 2002-2005 – in modern football that’s just an unreal number. Frank has the natural ability to change or control a game from the heart of the pitch. He has a superb engine and amazing talent to pick a pass over 5 or 50 yards – it all seems to come naturally to the midfield maestro. Having scored over 200 goals for Chelsea and 240 total, it doesn’t stop there as those magical numbers are still rising game by game.
Let’s think about them goal numbers for a minute. Remember, he plays midfield! His knack of being in the right place at the right time is legendary as is his ability to time his late run into the box to perfection while showing a calm head to put the ball in the onion bag. He’s played nearly 800 times in a glittering career spanning nearly 20 years at the top level. As age catches up with him like it does us all, Chelsea still look a better side with Lampard in the team. Simply, he makes them tick. He doesn’t give the ball away, and he gets others to play with the same drive and determination as he does.
He has amazing ability in every element of the glorious game making the game look simple, something only the top, top players can do. He’s amassed so far 3 Premierships, 4 FA cups, 2 League cups and the 2011-2012 Champions League to go with personal honours of winning the Premier Player of the year twice. The pinnacle of Frank’s career must be that 2012 Champions League after a quite breathtaking semifinal vs. Barca.
With the the Blues 1-nil up from the home leg it looked as predicted that the Spanish giants scoring twice, 2-1 up, before a great Lampard pass putting Ramires in to make it all square at 2-2. A late Torres strike (and that Gary Neville’s orgasmic noise commentary – Youtube it) sealed it for the London team. So on to the Final, and with John Terry suspended, Lampard was captain for the night against a superstar Bayern Munich side. The Germans had the lead through Muller, but Chelsea battled and bravely equalized through Drogba 5 minutes later, so on to extra time. Ex-Chelsea star Robben had a penalty saved by Cech, thus sending it into penalty kicks. After the Barca and Bayern games the football gods seemed to be shining brightly on the Blues, and to their fans it was meant to be with Chelsea winning the shootout 4-3, becoming Kings of Europe for the first time.
Even though his International career for England has impressive numbers (94 caps and 27 goals) it never scaled the heights he and fellow players of his generation really should have reached to match their talents – simply, they underachieved. Some of football greats had glowing respect for Lampard. Former boss Jose Mourinho said, “Lamps is Lamps, when he plays well he is best in the game, when he plays bad, he is the second or the third best”. Sir Alex said “Frank Lampard is an exceptional player – a huge asset to Chelsea, You pay attention to players who can get goals from midfield and he’s been averaging 20 a season”. High praise indeed from two modern day football great managers, but to be honest it’s hard not to be impressed by Lampard’s quality.
I really could write all day about Lampard as I have such a high respect for him, but I will leave with the Chelsea faithful chant of SUPER, SUPER FRANK, SUPER, SUPER FRANK, SUPER, SUPER FRANK, SUPER FRANKIE LAMPARD!
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photo credit: Live4Soccer(L4S) via photopin cc
