Chelsea Football Club is a professional football club based in Fulham, West London, England. Named after neighbouring area Chelsea, they compete in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. Founded in 1905, the team play their home games at Stamford Bridge. The club won their first major honour, the League championship, in 1955. They won the FA Cup for the first time in 1970, won their first European honour, the Cup Winners' Cup, in 1971, and became the third English club to win the Club World Cup in 2022.
Gianfranco Zola is an Italian football executive, manager, and former footballer who played predominantly as a forward. He is currently in charge as vice-president of the Lega Pro, the Italian Serie C football league.
In association footballing terms, a caretaker manager or interim manager is somebody who takes temporary charge of the management of a football team, usually when the regular manager is dismissed or leaves for a different club. However, a caretaker manager may also be appointed if the regular manager is suspended, ill, has suspected COVID-19 or is unable to attend to their usual duties. Examples of caretaker managers are Jordi Roura, Angelo Alessio, Germán Burgos and Rob Page. Caretaker managers are normally appointed at short notice from within the club, usually the assistant manager, a senior coach, or an experienced player.
Dennis Frank Wise is an English former professional football player and manager who played as a central midfielder. He spent the majority of his career at Chelsea, from 1990 to 2001.
José Mário dos Santos Mourinho FélixGOIH is a Portuguese professional football manager and former player who is currently the head coach of Süper Lig club Fenerbahçe. He is one of the most decorated managers and is widely considered to be among the greatest managers of all time. Mourinho has won league championships in four countries, is one of only six managers to have won the European Cup with two clubs, and is the only manager to have won all three current UEFA club competitions.
Ricardo Alberto Silveira de Carvalho is a Portuguese former professional footballer who played as a centre-back. He was widely regarded as one of the best centre-backs of his generation.
Paulo Renato Rebocho Ferreira is a Portuguese former footballer who played as a full-back.
Gianluca Vialli was an Italian football player and manager who played as a striker. Vialli started his club career at his hometown club Cremonese in 1980, where he made 105 league appearances and scored 23 goals. His performances impressed Sampdoria, who signed him in 1984 and with whom he scored 85 league goals, won three Italian cups, Serie A and the European Cup Winners Cup.
Carlo Ancelotti is an Italian professional football manager and former player who is the manager of Real Madrid. Nicknamed "Carletto" in Italy and "Don Carlo" in Spain, he is regarded as one of the greatest football managers of all time. Ancelotti is the most successful manager in UEFA Champions League history, having won the trophy a record five times, and two more as a player. He is also the only manager to take part in six Champions League finals. As a player, he won two European Cups with AC Milan in 1989 and 1990, making him one of seven people to have won the European Cup/Champions League as both a player and a manager. Ancelotti is also the only manager to win league titles in all of Europe's top five leagues. He has won the FIFA Club World Cup three times and has won the UEFA Super Cup five times, a record for a manager.
Guus Hiddink is a Dutch former football manager and professional player. He enjoyed a long career playing as a midfielder in his native Netherlands. Retired as player in 1982, Hiddink went into management, leading both clubs and countries from across the globe to achieve various titles and feats. With PSV Eindhoven he won the European Champions Cup, the predecessor of the UEFA Champions League. With Real Madrid he won the Intercontinental Cup.
Stephen Clarke is a Scottish professional football manager and former player who is the manager of the Scotland national team.
Jody Steven Morris is an English professional football coach and former player. He was most recently the head coach of EFL League Two club Swindon Town.
Gustavo Augusto Poyet Domínguez is a Uruguayan professional football manager and former footballer who most recently managed Greece. Poyet played as a midfielder and began his career with short spells at Grenoble and River Plate. He then spent seven years at Real Zaragoza, with whom he won the Copa del Rey and the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup. In 1997, Poyet moved to Chelsea on a free transfer and helped the club win the FA Cup and the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup. In 2001, he moved to Tottenham Hotspur, where he saw out the remainder of his career. He was also part of the Uruguay side which won the 1995 Copa América.
Juan Manuel Mata García is a Spanish professional footballer who plays for A-League Men club Western Sydney Wanderers. He primarily plays as an attacking midfielder, but can also play as a winger.
The 2008–09 season was Chelsea Football Club's 95th competitive season, 17th consecutive season in the Premier League and 103rd year in existence as a football club.
Paul Clement is an English professional football manager and coach. He has been assistant manager to Carlo Ancelotti several times – at Chelsea, Paris Saint-Germain, Real Madrid, and Bayern Munich. Clement has managed Derby County, Swansea City and Reading and has previously held coaching roles at Fulham, Blackburn Rovers, and the England under-21 and Republic of Ireland under-21 teams.
The 2015 Football League Cup Final was a football match that took place on 1 March 2015 at Wembley Stadium, London. It was the final match of the 2014–15 Football League Cup, the 55th season of the Football League Cup, a competition for the 92 teams in the Premier League and the Football League.
The 2018 FA Cup final was an association football match between Manchester United and Chelsea on 19 May 2018 at Wembley Stadium in London, England. It was the 137th FA Cup final overall and was the showpiece match of English football's primary cup competition, the Football Association Challenge Cup, organised by the Football Association (FA). It was the second successive final for Chelsea following their defeat by Arsenal the previous year. The teams had met twice before in the FA Cup Final, winning one each between them. The first was in 1994, which Manchester United won 4–0, and most recently in 2007, when Chelsea – then managed by the incumbent Manchester United boss José Mourinho – won 1–0 after extra time.
This article documents the history of Chelsea Football Club, an English association football team based in Fulham, West London. For a general overview of the club, see Chelsea F.C.
