Ashley Cole is a left back who plays for English side Chelsea and the English national team. Cole came up through the youth ranks of Arsenal, his local London team. At 19 he was on loan to another London outfit, Crystal Palace, to gain first team experience. Back at Arsenal for the 2000-01 season he secured a place in the starting line-up when their left-back regular Sylvinho got injured. He also made his debut for the English senior team later that season. The young Cole grabbed his chance and has never looked back since. In the next six years he won the Premiership twice and the FA Cup three times with Arsenal. He also firmly established himself in the England team, being widely regarded (at least in England) as the world’s best left back.
After a long and ugly transfer saga, Chelsea secured Cole’s signature ahead of the 2006-07 season.
In his first season at Chelsea they won both the FA Cup and the League Cup. Since then they have added another FA Cup triumph before securing the 2009-10 double.

Michael Ballack is a midfielder who plays for German side Bayer Leverkusen and Germany. Ballack is one of the longest serving captains in the German national team. He lost the captaincy to Philipp Lahm prior to the 2010 FIFA World Cup, due to injury making him miss the tournament. Ballack has played for several German teams but also played for English side Chelsea between May 2006 and May 2010. He picked up his injury, which made him miss the World Cup, in the FA Cup final (his last match for Chelsea). Ballack returned to Bayer Leverkusen, for whom he also played for from 1999 to 2002. Ballack was superb in the 2001-02 season, both for his club and for Germany in the World Cup. He was Player of the Year in Germany and several clubs were chasing his signature, including Real Madrid. Ballack chose to go to Bayern München on a €12.9 million transfer. During his four seasons at Bayern München they won three doubles.

Frank Lampard is a midfielder who plays for English side Chelsea and the English national team. He is also the vice-captain of both sides. Lampard comes from a strong footballing family. He joined West Ham’s excellent youth academy at the age of 16 in 1994. Except for a brief loan spell at Swansea, he played his way through the ranks at West Ham until the end of the 2000-01 season. He was sold to Chelsea for £11 million and has since then won numerous individual awards, as well as titles and silverware with the club.
Lampard has been a very consistent performer for Chelsea and also a prolific goalscorer. He has three times been chosen as their Player of the Year and he has also been Footballer of the Year in England, as well as UEFA’s Midfielder of the Year. The latter was in 2008, when Chelsea were runners-up in the UEFA Champions League.
Lampard made his debut for the English national team, already when he was at West Ham. He has twice been picked as the England fans’ Player of the Year.