by Arsenal take on PSG in one of the most anticipated ties in this year’s Champions League group stage, and all hopes will be at the Emirates Stadium on Tuesday night.
The game is being shown live on Amazon Prime, and the impressive multi-talented team of Frank Lampard, Clarence Seedorf, Daniel Sturridge and Laura Georges will be in action.
Of course, Lampard lifted the Champions League trophy for himself as a player, and his impressive career also saw him win three Premier League titles, four FA Cups and a Europa League with Chelsea, as well as numerous individual awards. The former West Ham, Man City and New York midfielder also won 106 caps for England, playing at three World Cups and scoring 29 goals.
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His managerial success has been mixed since hanging up his boots, taking Derby County to the Championship games in his first season before returning to Stamford Bridge and finishing as runners-up in the FA Cup. However, he was subsequently sacked by Chelsea and a poor spell in charge of Everton would also see him sacked.
Regardless, Lampard remains one of the greatest midfielders of his generation and remains a popular figure in the football world. His personal life also continues to make headlines, having married TV presenter Christine Bleakley almost a decade ago.
The couple spoke candidly about life together during their relationship, and Lampard also opened up about the tragedy that left him acting as a “zombie” during his career. Here are some things you might not know about the Chelsea legend.
An ‘awkward’ meeting with the wife
Lampard met his future wife, TV presenter Christine Bleakley, at the Pride of Britain Awards in 2009.
Two years later, they got engaged and married in 2015. They now have two children together, five-year-old Patricia and Freddie, two, although the footballer has two other daughters, teenagers Luna and Isla, from their previous relationship with a Spanish model. Elen Rivers.
Together, Frank and Christine – famous for presenting shows including The One Show and Dancing on Ice – are one of the UK’s most popular celebrity couples, but by their own admission, their relationship got off to a “strange” start as the TV presenter almost didn’t give him the time of day.
“Frank came over to me and said, ‘See you on The One Show’,” Christine revealed on Loose Women. “I said, ‘You don’t! Who was my guest last night?’ And he was able to tell me!”
“There was an awkward introduction at the after party,” she said. “I laughed and we both laughed about it. Then there was that. He somehow got my number, and I had a hold number to call on my phone on the way home. I picked up and it was.
“I said ‘Wow, you’re keen!’ a little joke, and we chatted, and he said he enjoyed meeting me and would like to stay in touch with me.
The TV host said: “Then he left for England the next day so I didn’t see him for a few weeks. But we spoke on the phone every night while he was away and one night we spoke for four hours.
“So by the time we met again, which was a few weeks later, we’d had all the weird conversations. I knew right away it could be serious because I knew we could be colleagues and he laughed at me and we laughed a lot on the phone.
A shocking family tragedy
In April 2008, Lampard suffered a devastating family tragedy when his mother Pat died aged 58.
After being admitted to hospital with pneumonia, she went into intensive care for a “week-long process”, but although she appeared to be improving, she suffered a brain haemorrhage and died, left her family in shock.
The Chelsea star, then 29, was heartbroken by the tragedy and broke down in tears on the pitch days later as he scored to send the Blues through to their first ever Champions League final. He went on to dedicate many of his career achievements to his mother, whom he described as his “best friend”.
Years later, he is still dealing with his grief and admitted he was a “zombie” for months afterwards, knowing it wasn’t “right”.
“That’s the only time I’ve been challenged about mental health issues,” he told the Journal of the POF podcast last year. “I was a mummy’s boy growing up. I depended on her and when I got older I would panic, ‘What if mum wasn’t there?’
“I was 29, it was very sudden, I was in a hotel we used to stay at the pre-match, we were playing Wigan in the evening. I received a call from my sister telling me that She was sick and went to the hospital.”
“Mum was getting a little better, then we got a call saying she had passed away, she had a brain haemorrhage,” he continued. “Just as she was getting better, everyone was excited, she died right then and there, so it was like the biggest devastation. Years later, I realize this happens to so many other people and when you’re a young man who wasn’t. ‘none is really lost, you don’t have that real feeling of what that is.”
Lampard went on to say that his mother was “everything” to him and, on reflection, he wants to walk away from football after the tragedy.
“I lost the person who was the closest to me, everything to me. I will never forget the feeling in my stomach,” he said. “If I talk about it I get it again instantly. I lost my best friend, the person who gave me that kind of emotional things and warmth. It’s nothing compared to anything when you’re so close.
“If I look back I think, ‘Maybe I should have gotten out of it [football]life is bigger than that’ but it was probably a little coping mechanism for me. We played a game against Liverpool, the second game, and I scored a penalty kick, we had won the game and now we are going to the final of the Champions League.
“I remember sitting in the dressing room afterwards and I had this overwhelming sense of fatigue, physical and mental fatigue,” Lampard added. “I went home and opened a beer, I couldn’t even drink it and I went to sleep, and everything came out of me then, it was like a week or two full of this delicious full pain. “
The former Everton manager also said he kept voice notes for his mother on his phone, although he regrets not taking more videos of her when she was alive. He also said he was glad he met Christine when he did, because it wasn’t “right” after his mother’s death.
“I still have his number in my phone and I still have a few voice note things,” he said. “We’ve never been a family that took videos and stuff, and I wish we were.
“My mother’s only sister is Sandra Redknapp, Harry Redknapp’s wife, and every time I talk to Sandra, I hear my mother. They look very similar, they sound very similar and in the first period there was it’s painful but now it’s kind of nice because that’s a memory for me.
“The feeling of sadness, it comes up with me now and again years later,” he said. “I think I probably had a year when I was single, drinking a bit but I was playing great football, I had a great year of football, it was weird. Then I met Christine and thank God she came around at the time that time because I was not well.”
Radio series
A year to the day after his mother’s death, Lampard took part in a live radio series with LBC talk show host James O’Brien defending himself against allegations that he was a bad father.
Her ex-partner, Elen Rives, told a newspaper that the footballer was “heartless” and accused her of forcing them to move to a small flat while he enjoyed a bachelor lifestyle in his old home. After being informed by his sister that the claims were being discussed live on the radio, Lampard called in to defend himself and accused O’Brien of insulting him.
“It’s insulting to me that you’re telling me you’d fight tooth and nail and you tell me I wouldn’t fight tooth and nail,” he said as he fought back against the claims. “You know nothing about me and you’re making me sound weak and scum because I didn’t fight tooth and nail.
“What I want you to do in the future is to think when it comes to personal issues, about people’s families, about people’s children, and that you are degrading them as people. Sometimes you should think about things before you talk about them. You are now talking about personal people.
He added: “Unfortunately I have to throw this in the public eye. Now someone has contacted my ex-girlfriend, pretending to be friendly, caught her a bit drunk and down or whatever and she got a load of stuff out of her.
“Someone has basically conned. She has been conned. And by being conned and then [it] comes off as a pure quote because she has sold her story. She gave her story in a moment of weakness.”
