Today, Petr Cech sadly announced his retirement from football at the age of 36. He will hang up his boots at the end of this season, 20 years after he signed his first professional contract.

Cech came to England in the summer of 2004, having been signed from Rennes by Jose Mourinho, who also joined Chelsea in that same summer. They went on to both win the Premier League in their first year. Cech went on to win three more titles as well as the Champions League before moving to Arsenal in 2015 after spending 11 years at Chelsea.

He is regarded as a legend by the Chelsea fans and rightly so. After all, he did help them win all of the below:

  • 4 Premier Leagues
  • 4 FA Cups
  • 3 League Cups
  • 1 UEFA Champions League
  • 1 UEFA Europa League

He also holds the clubs all-time record for the number of clean sheets.

As far as I am concerned, he’s one of the best goalkeepers this country has seen over the last decade and a half. He’s up there with Van Der Sar and De Gea. For me, those are the best 3 we have seen in that time.

Embed from Getty Images

He has had an astounding career, and will no doubt be a great loss to the whole of English football. He’ll be forever remembered as one of the great goalies, and the man with the skull cap. He has worn it ever since he suffered a horrible injury back in October 2016. He suffered a depressed skull fracture after a collision with Stephen Hunt which kept him sidelined for around 3 months. Even after his injuries healed, he decided to keep wearing the skull cap for his games since.

The Chelsea fans will get to say one final goodbye to their Legend when they face his current club Arsenal this weekend. It will no doubt be an emotional day for all as they say farewell to one of their greats.

Although his career at Arsenal never quite reached the same levels of success he had at Chelsea, he still went on to win one FA Cup with Arsenal in 2017.

The tributes for this great man’s career have been flying in since his announcement this morning.

View this post on Instagram

I would need Millions of words to describe you, your good heart, your professionalisms and winning mentality but one picture summarise it all, Thank you my Hero @petrcech for having Golden Hands and Heart Man saved three pens and run into me like I’m a legend ??‍♂️ What a career you’re gonna end in few months Love to the family ? De millions de mots ne suffiraient pas à te décrire toi l’homme au grand cœur, ton professionnalisme et ton envie de gagner , Mais cette photo résume bien tout, Merci mon Hero @petrcech d’avoir des mains et des gants en or Le gars arrête trois penaltys en finale et court vers moi comme si j’étais une légende ??‍♂️ Bien de choses à la famille ?

A post shared by didierdrogba (@didierdrogba) on

Featured Image by Carlos. Displayed under Creative Commons.