Legends are few and far between in football. There are plenty of one-season wonders and six-month flash in the pans, but you can count the players who have become symbolic talisman of their respective clubs; on one hand.
You don’t get much more legendary than Frank James Lampard, an £11m signing from West Ham United back in 2001, who went on to become Chelsea’s record goal-scorer and serial winner of trophies. On Saturday evening, the legend returns but in a different shade of blue. Chelsea fans will be stuck between a rock and a hard place. It’s still their Frank but not as they remembered.
Here are other legends who have returned to their former clubs and been received with open arms…
Cristiano Ronaldo
Ronaldo has played a blinder in keeping his old Manchester United fan base happy. The continual glowing references to his old club in which he drops vague hints that he could come back to Old Trafford one day, is a blatant piece of kidology that is known as the ‘tickling the tummy’ strategy.
The only way the perma-tanned King of football would come back to the cold and rain of North West England would be if they put a roof on his old stomping ground and then turned the heat up to 11. The Portuguese goal-machine returned to his beloved United for the first time in the return leg of the Champions League quarter-finals of 2013. Ron was greeted like a long lost son and although he went on to score the winner to knock the Red Devils out, the swooning Stretford End forgave him with a shrug and a shy wave.
Thierry Henry
King Henry the First of Highbury never looked comfortable at the Emirates Stadium. When the Gunners upped and moved sticks to their new state of the art stadium, it was only a matter of time before Thierry Henry would say goodbye. Although his time at Barcelona was productive, he wasn’t the same Henry that we had seen at Arsenal.
Absence had made the heart grow fonder and he returned to the Emirates with Barcelona, in a last 16 Champions League tie in 2010. A mere substitute, the great man came on late in the game and meandered around the pitch looking lost and a bit sheepish. Like a Mills & Boon novel, the flame of love was to be rekindled in this brief cameo appearance and Henry even got dug-out by Pep Guardiola after the Gallic maestro stayed on the pitch after the match to soak up the adulation of his fans in red and white.
Didier Drogba
Didier Drogba’s final touch of the ball as a player in his first stint at his beloved Chelsea brought the European Cup to London for the very first time. The rampaging Ivorian had sealed his legend status with that fateful penalty kick in the 2012 Champions League Final in Munich’s Allianz Arena and then, like a great actor, promptly exited stage left.
A few months later, he turned up at that retirement home for ageing footballers with pedigree, otherwise known as Galatasaray. It looked like the Drog had fun in Istanbul with his mates Sneijder, Melo and Eboue but, similar to Henry, it took a Champions League match against Chelsea to rekindle the flame. His return made even the most masculine of Blues’ fans pretend they had something in their eye as they wiped away tears from their moist eyes.
The return
When Lampard returns to Stamford Bridge on Saturday, there will be more of an edge to proceedings for two reasons: Firstly, when he left it was assumed that he was going to play in the MSL with New York City. Little did anyone know that it would turn into a cover story for his relocation to the Champions of England, who remain the biggest hurdle to Mourinho’s title aspirations. Secondly, Chelsea fans know that their old warrior could come back and haunt them, just like he did in the game at the Etihad earlier this season.
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