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SUMMER FILLED BY NEW MAGAZINE

/noticias.info/ The season may be over, but the work never stops for Chelsea magazine and the July edition is as packed as ever, with a number of features to keep you busy through Euro 2008 and the close season.

The new Chelsea casts its mind both backwards and forwards, with memories of Moscow and the biggest match in the club's history, quickly followed up by an interview with Chelsea new boy José Bosingwa.

Added to that is the immovable man at the back, Petr Cech, and a catch-up with Sky Sports legend Jeff Stelling, presenter of the Chelsea Player of the Year Awards this season. Finally, we hunt down former Blue Jakob Kjeldberg, who has undertaken an exciting career change.

If that still isn't enough to get you through a lack of on-pitch Chelsea action, there is all the news you may have missed, as well as the regular features throughout the magazine.

First up though is Moscow, the night we were within a whisker of our first Champions League triumph. A disappointment it may have been, but for many Blues fans, it was the trip of a lifetime.

We have four pages dedicated to the trip, from touchdown on Monday to departure on Thursday, as well as some of your experiences of our Russian adventure and a range of exclusive club photographs from behind the scenes.

For the players, it was just as memorable, but as Petr Cech puts it - 'It was a good experience with the wrong ending!'

One man just beginning is Portuguese full-back Bosingwa, who was at Stamford Bridge to sign his three-year contract with the club.

Naturally, Chelsea was there too, and found a speedy defender who can't wait to get out of the blocks and join his international team-mates in the Chelsea side.

Speaking on Ricardo Carvalho and Paulo Ferreira, he said: 'We know each other very well from our time with Porto and of course when I play with them for the national team.

'They are both two very good defenders I think. I am looking forward to spending more time together with them next season and playing with them again.

'[Chelsea] is such a big club and has a lot of ambition to succeed in England and in Europe. It is important for any player that you arrive at a club looking to be successful as you play football to win things. I know coming to Chelsea will help me win more trophies.'

Before he starts work at the Bridge though there is Euro 2008, and the ambition of going one step further than four years ago, when Portugal were runners up on home soil.

'It is going to be a fantastic competition. We got to the Final last time and were unfortunate to lose to Greece so we are confident of doing well again this time. It is always a nice thing to play for your country in such a big competition,' he explains.

'I am hoping to be in the team but we have a lot of good defenders, especially full-backs, so I will need to wait and see what the coach decides to do before I know how much I will play. But it is exciting to be going to the tournament with the squad, for sure.'

Four years ago, Petr Cech was in Bosingwa's position of preparing for a European Championship and a subsequent move to Chelsea.

''It was great for me,' he explains, looking back at an exciting period in his career. 'When I signed for Chelsea, everyone was saying, "Who? This guy is 20 and he plays for Rennes." But no one really knew me.

'Then I realised that it might be difficult for me and it was extra motivation to do well in Euro 2004. It was important for me because 90 per cent of Chelsea supporters were watching their new goalkeeper for the first time. I knew that if I had a good tournament then people would think I was a good addition to the squad. In the past four years things have changed and going into this tournament, people will watch me for different reasons.'

Now, he is thinking forwards, and will be pitting his wits against Bosingwa and his Portuguese team-mates.

'This time of course I know Paulo and Ricardo very well, Maniche is not there. It's always kind of funny when you play against your team-mates but in the end, what can you do? You want to win your game - you can all speak about it before and after, but during the game you don't think about it at all.

'When you all shake hands before the game, it doesn't feel the same as meeting all the other players because you usually go to battle on the same side.

'Then you have an extra motivation to win the game because you don't want to hear them saying for the rest of the year, "Where were you when I crossed the ball then?" and all of these sorts of things.'

One man who will be watching them all closely is Sky Sports' cult hero Jeff Stelling, possibly the most popular man on television at the moment, and the host of our recent Player of the Year Awards.

'I'm not sure if that is the correct way to describe me,' he humbly replies when asked how he feels about his popularity. 'I just present the football scores on a Saturday afternoon. I am fortunate, though.

'Working on Soccer Saturday is the best job in television. I am a big football fan and I get to sit alongside some of my heroes every weekend who, over the years, have become my mates.'
Some of those he refers to are Matt Le Tissier, Paul Merson and George Best, all of whom have some Chelsea link.

''I think George was bit of closet Chelsea fan actually,' remembers Stelling, who himself admits to having a soft spot for the Blues due to his nine-year-old son Robbie being a fan. 'In the days when Besty was working on the show, if he wasn't watching Manchester United he wanted to watch Chelsea. He lived nearby so he had a big interest in the club.

'He really liked the way Chelsea played football under Ruud Gullit and Gianluca Vialli.'

Jakob Kjeldbjerg just missed playing under the Dutchman at Chelsea, injury forcing him out of the game at 27.

Scott Minto was reunited with the Dane, and caught up with him on behalf of Chelsea, while Kjeldbjerg was preparing to film a Survivor-style reality TV show for Danish TV - in Malaysia.

''I've been presenting the show for five years now and I love it,' he explained. 'Each year we try to do something more outrageous than the last to try to upset the contestants.'

'It's extremely popular in Denmark and we've managed to develop the concept where it's not just about people starving on an island anymore. We think up new things that can have hilarious consequences.

'In the past we created an artificial shark's fin, attached it to a diver and told him to swim around. Two girls were in the vicinity and when they saw it, they screamed and yelled for help. I've never seen anyone swim to shore so quickly!'

Aside from these exploits though he is still firmly in touch with all things Chelsea, and looks back on his time at the Bridge.

'I would have loved to have played longer for Chelsea and be a part of what they've achieved,' he says. 'But the arrivals of players like Marcel Desailly would have limited my opportunities so I might have had to have moved on.'

His first choice was to become a reporter on the Premier League, and found his list of contacts quickly made him successful.

'It was easier for me to get an interview with the likes of Guillit and Vialli than it was for the other journalists and I quickly made a name for myself because I had the contacts others didn't,' he smiles.

Since then, reality TV has taken over, but he admits to being glued to the screen for the Champions League Final.

'Over the years I have detached myself a bit from football, but the game was so exciting and Chelsea were so close to winning that it was hard not to get emotionally involved.

I haven't seen JT since he was an apprentice all those years ago and I felt for him when he slipped.

'But he had a brilliant game and kept Chelsea in it with his clearance off the line. It was tough to watch near the end but Chelsea will bounce back.'

This can be guaranteed, but until August, you will have to make do with the July edition of Chelsea, available now for £3.25 from the Chelsea Megastore and all good newsagents. notas_de_prensa_archivo