page_title: Petr Čech
section_title: Return
hierarchical_section_title: Petr Čech / Club career / Chelsea / Return
caption_attribution_description: Petr Čech alongside Essien, my two favourite Chelsea players!
context_page_description: Petr Čech is a Czech former professional footballer who is a technical and performance advisor for Chelsea, and who also plays semi-professional ice hockey as a goaltender for Guildford Phoenix. Čech played as a goalkeeper and has been described by numerous players, pundits and managers as one of the greatest goalkeepers in European history. He is argued, alongside Peter Schmeichel, to be the greatest goalkeeper in Premier League history.
  Čech began his senior career at Chmel Blšany in 1999, where he played sporadically for two seasons prior to relocating to domestic superpower Sparta Prague in 2001. At age 19, Čech became a first team regular, and his single campaign with the club was fruitful, as he registered a league record of not conceding a goal in 903 competitive minutes. This led to his first move abroad, when he relocated to France to join Ligue 1 side Rennes for a fee of €5.5 million in 2002.
  In France, Čech starred in an under-performing team, and was the subject of a then club-record transfer for a goalkeeper when he moved to Premier League side Chelsea for a fee of £7 million in 2004.
context_section_description: Čech made his comeback in a Premier League match in a 2–0 defeat against Liverpool on 20 January 2007, wearing a rugby style headguard made by Canterbury of New Zealand and carrying the manufacturer's logo. This caused friction with Czech national team sponsor Puma and Chelsea's apparel manufacturer Adidas. The matter was resolved after the latter sponsor developed its own headgear for Čech to wear in club matches, while the player went on to wear an unbranded cap for national team games. Even long after his injuries healed completely, Čech has continued to wear the cap to his matches.
  Although Chelsea lost Čech's comeback match, he then went approximately 810 minutes of Premier League play without conceding a goal. On 11 April 2007, Čech was awarded the Premier League Player of the Month for the first time in his career, in recognition of his eight successive league clean sheets. He was the first goalkeeper to receive the award since Tim Flowers in 2000. This run was ended during a 4–1 Chelsea victory over West Ham United on 18 April 2007 when Carlos Tevez scored against him.
  Čech also kept a clean sheet for Chelsea in the 2007 FA Cup Final against Manchester United. He and United's Edwin van der Sar shared the honour of being the first goalkeepers to keep a clean sheet over 90 minutes in a competitive fixture at the new Wembley Stadium, but Čech became the first goalkeeper to end a competitive game unbeaten, as Chelsea beat United 1–0 to win the FA Cup.
caption: Čech playing for Chelsea in 2007
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