Chelsea Star player has today announced his retirement from football after shocking scenes
Few choices will ever be more memorable in Chelsea history than (interim) head coach Roberto Di Matteo’s selection of Ryan Bertrand as the starting left flank in the 2012 Champions League final. Bertrand, who was only 21 years old at the time, had never played, let alone started, in the competition and had only a dozen top-flight starts. Oh, and he was a leftback.
He would become the first player in history to make his debut in the competition’s final, as well as the first to make his debut in the final and hoist the Big Ears trophy at the same time! Bertrand would only play three more Champions League games in his career, all in the following season, and would leave Chelsea shortly after in quest of more consistent playing time, but he will be remembered as one of Munich’s Heroes.
Bertrand, 34, has chosen to formally retire after being out of the game for a year. He made the news yesterday. He enjoyed seven extremely fruitful years at Southampton after leaving Chelsea in 2014, before joining Leicester City in 2021, where injuries limited him to only a dozen or so games over two years. His contract expired last summer, and he’s been without a team since.
