John Terry was the captain of Chelsea's golden era and the centre of its defence. He led from the front and threw his body in the way of just about everything, and with him on the pitch Chelsea were very hard to score against.
As captain he lifted 5 Premier League titles and one Champions League. He made over 700 appearances for the club, and in 2005 he was named Professional Footballers' Association Player of the Year, a rare honour for a centre-back in the modern game. For England he earned 78 caps and wore the armband for several years.
What made Terry so hard to play against?
Mostly that he did everything in one passage of play. He would head the ball clear, block the next shot, make the tackle on the rebound and then turn round to organise the back four. His aerial game was outstanding, and strikers who tried to beat him in the air usually came away with a sore head and nothing else.
He was a warrior in the old English sense, and a leader too. Many consider him Chelsea's greatest captain and the club's best defender, and there is an argument that he was the best centre-back the Premier League has had. Number 23.
Tomorrow's pick: number 22.
