Frank Lampard
Frank James Lampard OBE (born 20 June 1978) is an English professional football manager and former player who was most recently caretaker manager of Premier League club Chelsea. He is widely regarded as one of Chelsea's greatest players ever, and one of the greatest midfielders of his generation. He has the record of the most goals by a midfielder in the Premier League and of scoring the most goals from outside the box (41).[4][5][6] He ranked highly on a number of statistics for Premier League players for the ten years from 1 December 2000, including most games and most wins.[7][8]
For his father, see Frank Lampard Sr.Personal information
Frank James Lampard[1]
20 June 1978[2]
6 ft 0 in (1.84 m)[3]
Team
→ Swansea City (loan)
Chelsea (interim)
A box-to-box midfielder, Lampard began his career in 1995 at West Ham United, the club where his father, Frank Lampard Sr., also played. He is best known for his time at London rivals Chelsea, for whom he signed in 2001 for £11 million. In his thirteen years with the club, Lampard established himself as a prolific scorer from midfield, becoming Chelsea's all-time leading goalscorer, with 211 goals scored in all competitions.[9][10] Lampard won three Premier League titles, the UEFA Champions League, the UEFA Europa League, four FA Cups, and two League Cups. In 2005, he was named FWA Footballer of the Year, and finished runner-up for both the Ballon d'Or and FIFA World Player of the Year. After leaving Chelsea, Lampard played for league rivals Manchester City[11][12] and Major League Soccer (MLS) club New York City FC before retiring in 2017.[10][13]
Lampard is one of 11 players, and the only midfielder, to have scored 150 or more goals in the Premier League. He is fourth in the Premier League's all-time assists ranking, with 102 assists.[14][15] Lampard holds a number of additional Chelsea and Premier League records, and has won PFA Fans' Player of the Year and the FWA Tribute Award. During his career, he was named in the PFA Team of the Year three times, Premier League Player of the Month four times, Premier League Player of the Season once and finished as the Premier League's top assist provider three times, and was named in the FIFPro World XI and a MLS All-Star. After departing, Lampard was named in the Chelsea Team of the Decade as voted for by Chelsea fans,[16][17] and into the Premier League Hall of Fame.[18]
Lampard played 106 matches for the England national team, after making his debut in 1999. He represented his country at three FIFA World Cups – in 2006, 2010 and 2014 – and in UEFA Euro 2004, where he was named in the Team of the Tournament. Lampard scored 29 goals for England, and was voted England Player of the Year in 2004 and 2005. After retiring from international football, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2015 for services to football.[19] After retiring, Lampard served as a team captain on the ITV sport panel show Play to the Whistle from 2015 until 2017. He has also written a number of children's books.[20]
Lampard began his managerial career with Derby County in 2018, leading the club to the final of that season's Championship play-offs. He was appointed as Chelsea's head coach a year later, guiding them to fourth place and the FA Cup Final in his first season. However, after a poor run of results, Lampard was dismissed in 2021. Following a spell with Everton, he was re-appointed Chelsea manager on a caretaker basis in 2023.
Club career
West Ham United
Lampard began his career at West Ham United, his father's former club, joining the youth team in 1994, his schoolboy hero being West Ham striker, Frank McAvennie.[21] Lampard joined West Ham when his father was the assistant coach, entering as an apprentice in the youth team in 1994 and signing a professional contract the following year. He went on loan to Second Division club Swansea City in October 1995, debuting in his team's victory 2–0 over Bradford City and scoring his first career goal in a match against Brighton & Hove Albion. Lampard played nine times for Swansea before returning to West Ham in January 1996.
International career
Youth and early career
Lampard was capped by England at youth level before making his under-21 debut on 13 November 1997 in a match against Greece.[171][172] He played for the under-21 side from November 1997 to June 2000, and scored nine goals in 19 appearances, a mark bettered only by Alan Shearer and Francis Jeffers.[172][173] He was capped once by England B, playing in a 2–1 home defeat to Chile on 10 February 1998.[174]
Lampard earned his first cap for England on 10 October 1999 in a 2–1 friendly win over Belgium, and scored his first goal on 20 August 2003 in a 3–1 win over Croatia.
He was part of the team at the FA Summer Tournament (Manchester) 2004, which England won.[175]
He was overlooked for Euro 2000 and the 2002 World Cup, and had to wait until Euro 2004 to take part in his first international competition. England reached the quarter-finals with Lampard scoring three goals in four matches. He scored against France and Croatia in the group stages, and in the quarter-final he equalised for England in the 112th minute against Portugal, bringing the scoreline to 2–2 but England lost on penalties. He was named in the team of the tournament by UEFA.[176]
2004–10: UEFA Euro 2004 and 2006 FIFA World Cup
He became a regular in the squad following the retirement of Paul Scholes, and was voted England Player of the Year by fans in 2004 and 2005.[177] He was England's top-scorer in their 2006 World Cup qualifying campaign, with five goals. He scored two crucial goals in the qualifiers, the first against Austria in a 1–0 win, and the second being the winning goal against Poland.[178][179]
Managerial career
Derby County
On 31 May 2018, Lampard was appointed as manager of Championship club Derby County on a three-year contract.[210] His first game in charge, on 3 August, resulted in a 2–1 away win for Derby at Reading, with Tom Lawrence scoring a last-minute winner.[211] His first loss as a manager came on 11 August in a 4–1 loss against Leeds United, in his second match in charge.[212][213] On 25 September, in just his 12th game as a manager, Lampard's Derby County knocked Premier League club Manchester United out of the EFL Cup on penalties, following a 2–2 draw at Old Trafford.[214]
After a 2–0 defeat in the return fixture against Leeds United at Elland Road on 11 January 2019 to further Leeds' lead at the top of the Championship table,[215] Lampard was critical of Leeds head coach Marcelo Bielsa, as in the pre-match build-up Bielsa admitted he had sent a spy to the Derby training ground,[216] after reports emerged in the press that a man was spotted the previous day outside the Derby training ground.[217][218] On 12 January, Leeds United released a statement in response to the incident.[219] Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino described the incident as 'not a big deal' and commonplace in Argentina.[220]
In his first season in charge of Derby, Lampard guided the club to the Championship play-offs after helping them finish 6th in the 2018–19 Championship season. In the semi-finals of the play-offs, Derby overturned a 0–1 home loss to win 4–2 away against Leeds United and claim the tie 4–3 on aggregate, setting up an appearance against Aston Villa in the final.[221] Derby lost the play-off final to Aston Villa 2–1.[222]
Upon the conclusion of the season, Lampard was heavily linked with the vacant managerial spot at former club Chelsea. On 25 June 2019, Derby granted Lampard permission to hold talks with the Chelsea bosses over said position.[223]
Media
From 2015 until 2017, Lampard served as a team captain on the ITV comedy panel show Play to the Whistle alongside Bradley Walsh. He was a regular pundit for football on BT Sport. For the 2018 World Cup, Lampard was among the BBC's list of pundits as he insisted that it would not affect his managerial duties.[247]
Lampard features in EA Sports' FIFA video game series; he was on the cover for the International edition of FIFA 10, alongside Wayne Rooney and Theo Walcott.[248] In 2018, Lampard was added as an icon to the Ultimate Team in FIFA 19.[249]