Frank Lampard Retires From Football

From the start of the move to its finish, Frank Lampard never broke out of a gentle jog. Manchester City, away at struggling Leicester City in December of 2014, had found their hosts in surprisingly resilient mood. Even with a wealth of attacking talent, including players like David Silva, Samir Nasri and Yaya Toure, they just couldn’t break through. But Lampard, now 38, found a way just before half-time.

First, he slipped the ball out wide to Nasri and sauntered forwards, his head turning left and right to assess the situation. Where was the gap? Where was the point of least resistance? And then it opened up.

As Nasri turned Wes Morgan left and right, Lampard simply strolled into space on the edge of the 6-yard box, arriving just in time for the Frenchman’s low pass and, of course, he scored. It was his 175th Premier League goal and one that typified his talents. He wasn’t fast by this stage of his career, but he didn’t need to be. He was clever. And his timing was impeccable.

Lampard, Chelsea’s record goal scorer and the owner of 106 England caps, didn’t always receive the praise or the respect that he deserved. For the average football supporter, there was always so much to hate.

He was one of the leading lights of a Chelsea side seemingly loathed beyond Stamford Bridge. His “body shape” brought the cruel nickname “Fat Frank,” often from people who would secretly love to be that “fat.” Finally, it wasn’t always obvious what he actually did.

Even in his youth, Lampard was never notably swift. He didn’t go in for unnecessary, YouTube-friendly flourishes either. He could tackle, but he wasn’t his team’s hard man. He had a wonderful range of passing, but he wasn’t Paul Scholes. He could take a game and dominate it, but he wasn’t Steven Gerrard.

The son of a former West Ham stalwart, Frank Lampard Sr., he was naturally gifted but not so generously that his career came easy. As a youngster, there were many who wondered if he had risen to the Hammers’ first team purely because his father was the assistant manager at the time. They were, as one memorable Q&A with the supporters shows, rather wide of the mark.

Lampard, as he reminded Joey Barton during their very public feud in 2006, reached the top of the English game and stayed there for so long because he worked so hard for it. He made himself into the player he became. He had barely any weak spots in his game and after an uncertain start to life at Chelsea, he seemed to get better with every year.

The arrival of Jose Mourinho in 2004 proved a catalyst to his career. Even Chelsea’s supporters had been initially unsure of the wisdom of paying £11 million for a player who’d never completely convinced the West Ham fans. But Mourinho’s arrival galvanised his career.

Lampard was in the shower when Mourinho approached him and told him that he was “the best player in the world” but that he needed to win titles. Lampard, a little perturbed given his state of undress, took the compliment to heart.

“From that moment the extra confidence was in me,” he said years later. “Not that I thought I was the best player in the world, but the manager who had just won the Champions League thought it. So I went out a different player.”

Gradually he became a different man, too. While John Terry was the obvious leader of the team, and that dressing room was as strong and driven as perhaps it has ever been, Lampard’s influence was palpable. In 2010, with Chelsea duelling Manchester United for the Premier League title on the last day of the season, the Blues only needed a win against Wigan to claim the trophy. Nicolas Anelka gave them an early lead but a first-half penalty gave Chelsea the chance of a crucial cushion.

Lampard was the designated penalty taker but Didier Drogba was battling Wayne Rooney for the Golden Boot and demanded the ball. Lampard stood his ground in spite of Drogba’s histrionics, ordering his teammate to get his priorities in order. After all that, he still held his nerve to score from the spot. Not that Drogba should have worried. He would go on to score a hat trick in an eventual 8-0 victory.

But it’s goals that Chelsea fans will remember most of all. Dozens and dozens of perfectly timed runs into the box. Scores of powerful snapshots, drilled home from outside the box. In every season, from 2003 through 2004 to 2012 through 2013, Lampard hit double figures in the league from midfield. For a nonstriker to be the top scorer for a club that has been graced with talents like Drogba, Peter Osgood, Jimmy Greaves and Bobby Tambling, is astonishing.

After Chelsea, Lampard chose to see out his career in the United States, signing with New York City for their debut MLS season. “I’m going to keep fit, that’s the main thing,” Lampard said in July 2014. “How I do that is not clear yet.”

Clarity came quickly. The following month, Lampard signed on loan for New York City’s parent club, Manchester City. When he then opted to stick around in Manchester while his new club opened their MLS campaign without him, it was deemed “a disaster” for U.S. football. There was a price to pay for the decision; Lampard was booed by his own fans when he finally arrived but he had the last word, ending the 2016 season with 12 goals in 19 games.

If there is a disappointment in a career the garnered three Premier League titles, four FA Cups, a Champions League and a Europa League, it is that he was never able to replicate that success with England. But in this, he is hardly alone. There is a whole “golden generation” to consider.

The desperate insistence on using him in a pair with Gerrard even after countless demonstrations of their incompatibility will baffle future historians of the game. That the two of them bowed out at international level together in the centre of midfield in a sad 0-0 draw with Costa Rica in 2014 tells you all you need to know about the maddening, self-inflicted malaise of English football. But that’s another story.

Lampard ends his playing career without regret, a naturally good player who turned himself into a great one. As he turns his attention to attaining his coaching badges, you wonder what he might achieve in the next stage of his life in football.