Best Chelsea Players to Wear the Number 6 Jersey Ever

Jersey numbers are an important part of football, icons have blazed their trails all while adorned by a familiar number on their back. Similarly, some players have besmirched a number, leading to the narrative of a number nine curse among some fans. For some clubs steeped in history, they won’t have had just one notable player wearing a particular number, which is why in this, we’ll be looking at the best Chelsea players to ever wear the number 6 jersey.

Best Chelsea Players to Wear the Number 6 Jersey of All Time

Ron Harris

Another mention for the ‘Chopper’ but one of the more prominent. While he bounced around from number to number, he did spend a lot more time in the 2, 3, and 6 than the others. if you’ve read other entries in the series, then you already know his legendary status, but for those who are new let’s dive back in.

Ron Harris was a hard-nosed defender who defined an era for the Blues. He made 724 appearances for the team as a cornerstone piece of the defence and a leader. He was part of squads that won the FA Cup, League Cup, and European Cup Winners’ Cup as part of the historic 70s unit.

Peter Osgood

Another shirt number that Peter Osgood had sporadically. He was more notorious for donning the number nine at points but also spent some time with the six on his jersey. He is remembered as one of the finest strikers to ever wear the crest and was immortalised as the goalscoring leader of the ’60s/’70s unit that is so well-remembered today for capturing multiple trophies.

His time with Chelsea came to an end with 140 goals to his name, including an average of one in every three top-flight games where he netted 105 times.

Marcel Desaily

Marcel Desaily was one of the many building blocks of the upturn Blues side of the 90s-early 00s. The French defender arrived as a former Champions League winner and would go on to win the World Cup in 1998 and the Euros in 2000.

He formed a resilient defensive line that for a time had a record for the best defensive performance the team ever had in the top division as Ed de Goey briefly had the most clean sheets of any Chelsea goalkeeper in a season.

Desaily made over 200 appearances across all competitions for the English team and captured multiple trophies as well as securing European football in his final campaign, a success which saw Roman Abramovich decide to buy the club and change its trajectory forever.

Ricardo Carvalho

Off the back of a stellar Euro 2004 campaign Ricardo Carvalho followed Jose Mourinho from Porto to London. He won Premier League titles in his first two years with his new club and formed a formidable partnership with John Terry when healthy.

The duo, backed by Petr Cech in goal have gone down in history for a presumably unbreakable record that saw them let in just 15 goals in a 38-match Premier League season. Carvalho came in and instantly made a historic splash, winning three top division trophies and a number of other titles in a successful stint in blue.

Thiago Silva

‘O Monstro‘ arrived to Stamford Bridge as an elder statesman as a free agent move to help Thomas Tuchel’s side shore up their defence. While he had already established himself as one of the greatest defenders of a generation at AC Milan and Paris Saint-Germain, it was with the Blues that he solidified his legacy.

Not only did Silva star in the Champions League win of 2020, but he managed to play well and succeed in the top division of English football as one of the oldest outfield players it has ever seen. What was initially a short-term solution turned into an impressive chapter in the defender’s career as he proved to be one of the best to ever wear a Chelsea jersey and one of the best to don the number six.