Life Transfer: Chelsea & Big Pete
The year of the turning point from Petr's point of view was 2004. Indeed, immediately at its beginning the transfer to Chelsea FC was born, despite the fact that the management of Rennes agreed with the London counterparts that the club's goalkeeper number one would stay in the country of the Gallic cock still till the end of the season and only then he would transfer to Stamford Bridge. Before the new chapter begun of the Petr's football life with the sub-title “In the Colours of the Blues”, in spring he still succeeded in helping Rennes to keep the place in the calm middle of the League table and, first of all, was one of the key persons of the national squad at EURO 2004. In Portugal he was the great support of the team on its journey after the bronze medals and, moreover, after the tournament he was declared the best goalkeeper of the whole Championship. In the middle of July, with that visiting card he engaged in the preparation of Chelsea for the new Premier League season. In the team full of stars, under the leadership of the coach José Mourinho, he became established very quickly and at his post managed to cope with the strong competition in the form of Carlo Cudicini. The fight for the post of goalkeeper number one turned out well for Big Pete. This new nickname was invented for him by the captain of the team, John Terry. It was with him that since his engagement at the Thames Petr formed an inseparable pair the harmony of which was the basic pillar of the almost faultless defence of Chelsea. In the first ten League matches the Czech goalkeeper got only two goals...
Record and Title in Premier League, Qualifying to the World Championship
If the year 2004 was packed with significant events, the following one still surpassed its predecessor. In its course Petr managed to fight successfully at both fronts – at the club and representation ones. In Premier League he kept, in the period between December 18, 2004 and February 12, 2005, ten clean sheets in turn which in the end represented 1025 minutes of league shot-resistance and a new record of the competition. Added to it were two valuable trophies for the first place in the League Cup and, especially, for the triumph in the Premier League! The fans of the Blues waited to win the title after long fifty years, moreover, in the year when the club commemorated the 100th anniversary of its foundation. With the national team Big Pete flew through the obstacles of qualification for the participation in the World Cup and after the victory in the play-off with Norway he could begin, with his team-mates, to look forward to another start at the major football event.
Czech Football Player of the Year 2005
All those team successes supported by the individual stable form and the ability to support the team at the crucial moments reflected in different individual public inquiries in the foreground of which the native of Plzeň appeared. May it be the fifth place in the Sportsman of the Year of the Czech Republic, the gaining of the Golden Ball for the Best Czech Football Player of the Season 2004/05 or the inclusion into the elite XI of Premier League and Champions League in the assessment of the same season. The beginning of 2006 then was the top of those awards. First, Big Pete was elected by the International Federation of Football Historians and Statistics the best goalkeeper of the world for 2005 and then in Prague he was crowned the King of Czech football for the past year in the public inquiry - the Football Player of the Year. Included into that series of favourable news was also the information about the extension of the contract with Chelsea till 2010.
Defence of the Premiership Title and the Golden Ball
The end of the season 2005/06 brought moments of large joy to Petr, as well as those with considerable disappointment. His Chelsea reached the defence of the League title and he himself was elected, for the second time in turn, in the journalists' inquiry the Golden Ball, the best Czech Football Player of the just completed season. That all was to be crowned by the success of the national team at the World Championship in Germany which, however, did not occur – the team was shut out from the tournament in the basic group already. Despite that, Big Pete could be pleased, at least a little, by the fact that he got to know, on his own skin, the atmosphere of the greatest football event in the world (moreover, as one of its direct players) and, first of all, he could be satisfied with the fact that in all three matches at the Championship he was a key player of the team. His gala performance against Ghana, despite the fact that from the Czech point of view it ended by the defeat of 0:2, filled the football fans all over the world with enthusiasm...
Two Injuries, Two Successful Comebacks
Immediately after the World Championship in Germany Petr went to the operating table. In London he underwent the planned arthroscopy of both shoulders with the aim to remove chronic pains from them that he has suffered in the long term. The intervention and subsequent rehabilitation were successful and so Petr returned to the pitch long before the originally expected date. The player worked hard to be back as soon as possible and his hard work paid back. In the September matches of Chelsea and the Czech national team that entered the qualification for the EURO 2008 with two important victories over Wales and Slovakia he was the man in his place and was pleased by the fact that after the break in matches of two months he felt physically as good as he had never felt before. Unfortunately, his excellent autumn condition was cut by the well-known clash with the forward of Reading, Stephen Hunt in which Big Pete suffered the skull fracture. Immediate operation and excellent care of medical specialists at the Clinic of Neuro-Surgery in Oxford provided Petr with the hope at the most difficult moments of his sport career that he would be able to continue the career of a professional football player. The same as in summer, 2006 also after this injury he showed large will to return to the pitch as soon as possible. And when the results of all medical tests were all right, he was no more kept by anything from appearing again in the team of Chelsea three months after the serious injury. Immediately, the "comeback match" against Liverpool showed that the Czech goalkeeper had lost nothing from his goalkeeper's skill. Also the following matches, including the friendly match with Belgium confirmed – as was written, by the way, in Petr's pages by one of his fans – the return of good old Big Pete, perhaps even better than till now...
The End's Good, All's Good: Two Cup Triumphs
The season 2006-07, for Petr personally the most demanding one in his existing sport life, in the end turned into a successful form. In the spring fights Chelsea was in the play for a long time in all four competitions (in three Cup competitions and one Premier League one) and from two of them it brought the trophy for victory: in February, 2007 it vanquished Arsenal in the Carling Cup Final and three months later, at the newly opened Wembley Stadium defeated Manchester United in the FA Cup Final. So, thanks to the triumph in the FA Cup Big Pete managed an unseen thing during three seasons of his activity at Stamford Bridge: during that time he became the owner of all trophies that may be won in England with the club! Only the Champions League again showed to be a competition as under a spell for the Blues. That time Petr Čech & Co were really very close to the dreamed-of final appearance - however in the struggle with Liverpool they lost at the penalty shootout.
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