{"id":665790,"date":"2026-02-27T16:31:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T21:31:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=665790"},"modified":"2026-02-27T16:31:57","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T21:31:57","slug":"john-terry-names-best-defender-premier-league-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2026\/02\/27\/john-terry-names-best-defender-premier-league-history\/","title":{"rendered":"John Terry Names the Greatest Defender in Premier League History Amid Van Dijk Debate"},"content":{"rendered":"

Across social media in recent weeks, ex-professionals and fans alike have been debating who is the greatest Premier League defender. Jermaine Pennant caused a stir by picking Virgil van Dijk ahead of John Terry<\/a>, prompting a response from the former Chelsea<\/span><\/a> captain. Terry has now appeared on the Double Tops<\/span><\/a> podcast, revealing where he sees Van Dijk among this current generation and who he believes is the greatest Premier League defender of all time.<\/p>\n

John Terry Belongs Among the Premier League Greats<\/h2>\n

Chelsea Legend Discusses Best Premier League Defenders<\/h3>\n

John Terry\u2019s place among the greatest Premier League defenders cannot be denied. He made 717 appearances in all competitions for Chelsea, scoring 67 goals. Terry achieved everything in club football, winning five Premier League winner\u2019s medals, five FA Cups, three Carabao Cups, one Europa League, and a Champions League trophy.<\/p>\n

Read More:\u00a0<\/strong>Best Chelsea Players to Wear the Number 16 Jersey Ever<\/a><\/p>\n

Terry was an elite centre-back. He could read the game better than most and was a born leader. His exceptional positioning enabled him to snuff out many attacks. JT maintained an exceptionally high level of performance over many years. One ability he had, often overlooked, was his ability to ping a pass 60-70 yards with either foot.<\/p>\n

Terry Names the Greatest Defender in Premier League History<\/h3>\n

Appearing on the Double Tops podcast, JT was asked who the greatest defender in Premier League history is, and his response was honest: \u201cThe debate started about me, Rio, Vidic, and then all of a sudden it just got kind of isolated to me. I think myself, Rio, Vidic, we\u2019re different generations to Virgil.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Virgil van Dijk is the greatest in this era, this generation. He\u2019s the best by a million miles in the Premier League and has been for the last four or five years. If it\u2019s for me to say, I would say Rio (Ferdinand) for me. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s for me to sit on here and go, I\u2019m the best. What I will do is come out when someone says the highest scoring defender and clean sheets. No, no, that\u2019s me. So I\u2019m allowed to defend myself in terms of that.<\/p>\n

Read More:\u00a0<\/strong>Wonderkids in Waiting: Charlie Holland (Chelsea)<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cBut if I had to pick someone. Rio, over time, longevity, what he won, playing at one of the biggest clubs in the world, in Man United, that\u2019s the greatest for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Do you agree with John Terry?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Across social media in recent weeks, ex-professionals and fans alike have been debating who is the greatest Premier League defender. Jermaine Pennant caused a stir by picking Virgil van Dijk ahead of John Terry, prompting a response from the former Chelsea captain. Terry has now appeared on the Double Tops podcast, revealing where he sees […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4106,"featured_media":665791,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":true,"sfio_embed_code":"<\/smartframe-embed>","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,11,16,18,30],"tags":[546,778,1110,756],"class_list":["post-665790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-premier-league","category-chelsea","category-liverpool","category-manchester-united","category-news","tag-john-terry","tag-nemanja-vidic","tag-rio-ferdinand","tag-virgil-van-dijk"],"modified_by":"Ricky Carroll, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=665790"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665790\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":665795,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665790\/revisions\/665795"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/665791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=665790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=665790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=665790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}