Frank Lampard(oblation)

Frank James Lampard (born 20 June 1978) is an English professional footballer who plays as a central midfielder, attacking midfielder or defensive midfielder for Manchester City. He is the all-time leading goalscorer for Chelsea, where he played for 13 years, and is considered by a number of journalists and football experts to be one of the best midfielders of his generation. He has been described by previous record goal-scorer Bobby Tambling and long-term teammate John Terry as Chelsea's greatest ever player.

Lampard began his career at West Ham United, for whom his father Frank Lampard, Sr. had also played. He secured a place in the first team by the 1997–98 season, and the following year helped the team finish 5th in the Premier League, their highest-ever Premier League placing. In 2001, he moved to rival London club Chelsea for £11 million. In 2014, he was released by Chelsea after 13 years of service. Lampard then joined New York City FC on a two-year deal, in preparation for the club's Major League Soccer debut in 2015, as a free transfer, being loaned out to Manchester City in the meantime. On 31 December 2014, however, BBC Sport's David Ornstein revealed Lampard is under contract to Manchester City and not New York City as previously claimed by both clubs.

From his début, he was ever-present in the Chelsea first team and made 164 consecutive Premier League appearances, a record for an outfield player. He established himself as a prolific scorer at the west London club and was a key part of the sides which won back-to-back Premier League titles in 2004–05 and 2005–06 and a domestic cup double in 2007. He signed a new contract in 2008, becoming the highest-paid Premier League footballer at that time, and scored in his firstChampions League Final that year. He won a second FA Cup winners' medal in 2009, scoring the winning goal in the final. In the 2009–10 season, Lampard helped Chelsea secure their first league and FA Cup Double, and also had his most prolific season with the club, scoring 22 league goals and 17 league assists. In 2012, Lampard captained Chelsea to their firstUEFA Champions League success and a year later to their first UEFA Europa League title. He was released by the club after the 2013–14 season.

A three-time Chelsea Player of the Year, Lampard is the club's all-time top goalscorer with 211 goals in all competitions. Lampard is one of seven players, and the only midfielder, to have scored 150 or more goals in the Premier League. He is second in the Premier League's all-time assists table, behind Ryan Giggs. In 2005, Lampard was votedFWA Footballer of the Year and was runner-up in both the FIFA World Player of the Year and the Ballon d'Or. In 2010 he received the FWA Tribute Award.

Internationally, Lampard was capped 106 times by England since his debut in October 1999, and scored 29 international goals. He was voted England Player of the Year for two consecutive years in 2004 and 2005. He played in Euro 2004, where he was named in the team of the tournament after scoring three goals in four games. He was top scorer for England in their 2006 World Cup qualifying campaign with five goals, and played at three World Cups. He is England's most prolific penalty taker with nine goals, surpassing the previous record holders, Ron Flowers and Alan Shearer.

Club career

Chelsea

2013–14
On the opening day of the season, Lampard scored a free-kick in a 2–0 win against newly promoted Hull City. On 1 October, he scored his 205th goal for Chelsea in a 4–0 win away to Steaua Bucharest in the UEFA Champions League. On 23 November 2013, Lampard scored his 206th and 207th goals for Chelsea against his former club West Ham in a 3–0 win. Lampard moved to 4th on the all-timePremier League goal-scoring list on 2 December by beating Robbie Fowlers amount of 164 goals.On 22 February 2014, Lampard scored a stoppage-time winner against Everton, initially credited to John Terry but awarded to Lampard by the Dubious Goals Committee, keeping Chelsea in first place.On 2 April he played his 100th Champions League game, losing 3–1 to PSG. On 5 April 2014, Lampard scored 250th goal of his club career in a 3–0 win against Stoke City.



On 23 May 2014, Lampard was included on the list of players released by Chelsea. However, Lampard revealed that any contract talks with Chelsea would be decided after the 2014 World Cup, with a statement saying "he will meet with Chelsea before any consideration of a move elsewhere." On 3 June 2014, Chelsea confirmed Lampard would leave the club.

Manchester City

Signing and New York City controversy
On 24 July 2014 Lampard, as a free agent, signed a two-year contract with New York City FC to commence ahead of the 2015 MLS season. It was announced at a live press conference in Brooklyn that he would be joining the club, which will enter Major League Soccer for the 2015 season. Sporting director Claudio Reyna hailed him as "one of the greatest players in world history". NYCFC's parent club Manchester City announced on 3 August 2014 that Lampard would join the club on a six-month deal ending in January 2015. Initially reported as a loan, reports emerged on 31 December 2014 that that Lampard had signed a short-term contract with the club as a free agent with his MLS contract not to start until the end of his stay in Manchester. The same day, it was announced that Lampard would extend his contract with Manchester City until the end of the English season, missing the start of the 2015 MLS season and it was confirmed that that Lampard had never been an MLS player with his arrival date in MLS unclear.

Lampard extending his stay in Manchester prompted an angry response from fans in New York, with NYCFC being accused of dishonesty for using the player in their promotional material and MLS Commissioner Don Garber being accused of poor leadership and a lack of transparency in his handling of the affair. On 1 January 2015, Manuel Pellegrini hinted that Lampard could extend his stay at Manchester City to a second season. On 9 January, Manchester City admitted that Lampard had never signed a two year contract with NYCFC having instead originally signed a non-binding "commitment" to join the team. On the same day Lampard confirmed his intention to begin playing for NYCFC at the end of the 2014–15 Premier League season. Around 300 people asked for season ticket refunds in response to the affair, while the 2015 MLS SuperDraft started to a chant of “Where’s Frank Lampard?” from the crowd.

2014–15

Lampard made his Manchester City debut on 13 September in a 2–2 away draw against Arsenal; he received a yellow card and was substituted at half time for Samir Nasri. He scored his first goal for the club on 21 September with a volley from inside the box, after only being on the field for seven minutes as a substitute, to level the scoreline at 1–1 in a home draw against Chelsea. This ended Chelsea's perfect winning streak in the season, but it was a goal which he did not celebrate and described as a very emotional day. In Lampard's first League Cup match for City three days later, he scored the first and last goals as the side defeated Sheffield Wednesday7–0 at home in the third round. On 27 September, Lampard came on in the 71st minute, only to score another goal to make it four goals in four matches and his fourth that week. He made his first Champions League appearance on 30 September in Machester City's 1–1 draw with Roma. On 1 January 2015, the day after extending his stay with the club, Lampard scored the winner for City in aPremier League encounter against Sunderland.

New York City
On 10 January 2015, Lampard signed a Major League Soccer contract to play for New York City FC, beginning on 1 July.

International career

2014 World Cup qualification

Lampard started England's first game in qualification and starred as England thrashed Moldova 5–0, with Lampard scoring his 24th and 25th England goals. His first goal was England's 100th ever penalty and his second was a header from a cross from Glen Johnson, after Steven Gerrard was substituted he captained the side.

Lampard scored his 26th international goal from the penalty spot against Ukraine equalling the amount of goals scored by Bryan Robson.

On 22 March, he surpassed David Platt as England's highest scoring midfielder when he scored his 28th international goal in a 0–8 win over San Marino.

2014 World Cup
On 12 May 2014, Lampard was named in the 23-man England squad for the 2014 FIFA World Cup and a week later he was named vice-captain. On 24 June, for the last game of the group stage, Lampard captained his England side to draw with Costa Rica 0–0.

Retirement

On 26 August 2014, Lampard announced that he had retired from international football. He earned 106 caps, scoring 29 goals.

Style of play
Widely regarded by pundits, managers, and team mates as one of the greatest midfielders of his generation, Lampard is an all-round and versatile box-to-box player, who is capable of playing anywhere in midfield; he has been deployed as a central midfielder, as an attacking midfielder, as a defensive midfielder, and even as a supporting striker on occasion. A hard-working player with stamina and an ability to read the game, Lampard is also capable of functioning creatively, due to his technique, vision, and passing range. In addition to his creative and defensive midfield roles, Lampard also possesses a keen eye for goal, due to his ability to make attacking runs, and his accurate, powerful shot from distance. These attributes enabled him to maintain a prolific goalscoring record throughout his career, despite his deep playing position. Lampard is also an accurate set-piece and penalty kick taker.

Personal life
Lampard attended Brentwood School between 1989 and 1994, finishing with eleven GCSEs, including an A* in Latin.

His father is Frank Lampard, Sr., the former West Ham United player and assistant manager who was still associated with the club when Lampard junior was playing for them. His mother Pat died in April 2008 aged 58 as a result of pneumonia. Lampard's uncle is Harry Redknapp and his cousin is Redknapp's son Jamie Redknapp.

In 2000, Lampard, Rio Ferdinand and Kieron Dyer appeared on a sex video that was filmed at the holiday resort of Ayia Napa in Cyprus. Channel 4 aired a brief clip as part of their 2004 documentary Sex, Footballers and Videotape, claiming it was used to "remind the viewer that this is based on real life." On 23 September 2001, Lampard, along with three other Chelsea players was fined two weeks wages by the club for his behaviour whilst on a drinking binge on 12 September. Lampard and the others had abused American tourists at a Heathrow hotel, just 24 hours after the 11 September attacks. A hotel manager stated "they were utterly disgusting. They just didn't seem to care about what had happened".

It was reported by Mensa that Lampard showed an unusually high IQ score during neurological research carried out by the Chelsea doctor, Bryan English. English stated that "Frank Lampard scored one of the highest set of marks ever recorded by the company doing the tests".

In 2007, Lampard stated that he is a supporter of the Conservative Party.

Relationships
Lampard lives in Surrey and London. He has two daughters with his former fiancée, Spanish model Elen Rivas, Luna (born 22 August 2005) and Isla (born 20 May 2007).Since October 2009, Lampard has been in a relationship with presenter Christine Bleakley. On 15 June 2011, their engagement was announced by Lampard's agent.

On 24 April 2009, Lampard was involved in a radio confrontation with James O'Brien on the London radio station LBC 97.3. Newspapers had reported that following Lampard's split from Rivas their children were living with her in a small flat while Lampard had converted their family home into a bachelor pad. Lampard phoned in, objecting to criticism and asserting that he had fought "tooth and nail" to keep his family together.

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/