Today, a Chelsea legend passed
Peter Bonetti, Chelsea Football Club’s goalkeeper on no less than 729 occasions, has today died at the age of 78.
When I was growing up he was one of two players, along with Peter Osgood, I idolised as a child. I even played in goal for a couple of seasons when I was 11 or 12, and pestered my parents to buy the goalkeeping gloves made famous by the great man.
Back then, as children, my friends and I would spend as much free time as possible on the local football pitches, often trying to emulate the skills and feats of our heroes. We’d all have fleeting moments of brilliance but we could never hope to be anything like as good as the players we worshipped, and there was no reset button when for the 20th time we failed; just hard work, sweat, aching limbs, and playing until it was too dark to carry on, as it often was.
I’m far from the first to say this, and I most definitely won’t be the last, but when it comes to footballers the word ‘legend’ is bandied around so often that it becomes almost meaningless. Over on Reddit, for example, where legends are born almost purely out of the number of trophies players have won, legends are even graded into tiers, such is the lack of true bearing of the word. My view has, and will always be: a player is a legend in the eyes of the beholder, or they’re not.
Peter Bonetti was a true Chelsea Football Club legend. Ahead of his time, technically brilliant and, over 50 years since I started watching football, I’m yet to see a goalkeeper who could match the power and accuracy of his throws, which he often favoured instead of punting the ball up the pitch route one style. At a time when I see excuses made for the lack of height and stature of other goalkeepers in the modern semi-contact game we witness these days, I’m reminded that Bonetti was never afraid of getting stuck in and could hold his own against any high-crossing team in what was then the full-contact sport I grew up with and loved.
As an international, he will forever be in the shadow of Gordon Banks, but as a club player, he will forever be remembered for being ever-present in the Chelsea goal over two decades. A feat which will almost certainly never be matched.
Pele: “The three greatest goalkeepers I have ever seen are Gordon Banks, Lev Yashin and Peter Bonetti”
Back in the 60s and 70s it was hard to even imagine a time when he wouldn’t be in the Chelsea goal. While my father took me to a few games when I was still very young, we were unable to make the 1970 FA Cup final, but were able to watch the match, including the replay, on our next door neighbour’s colour television. I’ve watched that game many times since, and will no doubt watch it many more times in the future.
As we grow older, small parts of our childhood fall by the wayside as people we adored pass on, but the memories remain. That’s the essence of legendary.
RIP Peter Bonetti, ‘The Cat’.