Blog: Watching My Personal Hero, Frank Lampard

With Chelsea set to play Steaua Bucharest in tonight’s Europa League clash, writer Viorel Mesca will be in attendance to watch one of his idols: Frank Lampard.

Written by Viorel Mesca

I’ve always been a massive fan of “Frank the Tank”. Ever since his early days, when playing for the Hammers. I  remember West Ham’s ’98-’99 season, when they reached 5th place in the Premier League and qualified for the Intertoto cup. Frankie was instrumental in that campaign, despite scoring only 5 league goals in the process. One season later, he scored a whopping 14 goals in all competitions, drawing interest from Premier League’s bigger clubs.

When joining Chelsea  in 2001, I  doubt anyone could have imagined what success lay ahead for Lampard. 12  seasons later, he has won 3 Premier League  titles, 4 FA Cups, 2 League Cups, 2  Community Shield trophies and Europe’s jewel-trophy: the UEFA Champions League. Having already scored 199 goals in 592 games for Chelsea in all competitions, Lampard is without any doubt the best box-to-box midfielder of his generation, in this author’s view. He’s the only midfielder to have scored more than 150 goals in the Premier League. A legendary figure for the Blues, Lampard’s brilliant gameplay has almost earned him a Ballon D’or in 2005, the UEFA Midfielder of the Year award in 2008 and many other prestigious individual awards.

Of all his hero’s displays, this author will definitely remember 2 Lampard-esque moments, surprisingly both of them related to Spanish giants Barcelona. The first one is from 2006, when Chelsea were 1-0 behind to the brilliant Catalan side when Super-Frank scored an incredible goal exactly from the byline, leaving Valdes with no chance of saving it. It was pure magic stuff from Lampard!

The second Lampard-esque moment is from 2012 when Barcelona were leading  Chelsea 2-0 at the Camp Nou with one foot in the final, when Lampard played an exquisite through ball to set Ramires free and the Brazilian eventually scored. We all know what happened next. It was written in the stars that a player like Lampard (not to mention Didier Drogba) would finally get his hands on the trophy.

Lamps deserves much more from the Blues’ management and a new deal should be offered to the brilliant midfielder.

This evening, I will finally have the chance of meeting the legendary midfielder at the National Arena (Bucharest). It is a great day, a wonderful day for me, to finally see him play right in front of my eyes.  I feel absolutely delighted at this prospect!

Although I’m a massive fan of Chelsea’s adversary, Steaua Bucharest, I will be stood in awe of Frank Lampard. He deserves much, much more!

What do Chelsea fans think of Lampard’s remarkable achievements at Chelsea?