Arsenal take on PSG in one of the most eagerly anticipated matches of this year’s Champions League group stage, with all eyes on the Emirates Stadium on Tuesday evening.
The match will be shown live on Amazon Prime, with an impressive line-up of experts including Frank Lampard, Clarence Seedorf, Daniel Sturridge and Laura Georges giving their thoughts on the action.
Of course, Lampard lifted the Champions League trophy himself as a player, with a stellar career that also saw him win three Premier League titles, four FA Cups and the Europa League with Chelsea, as well as countless individual trophies. The former West Ham, Man City and New York City midfielder also won 106 caps for England, played at three World Cups and scored 29 goals.
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He has had mixed success as a manager since hanging up his boots, leading Derby County to the Championship play-offs in his first season before returning to Stamford Bridge and finishing as runners-up in the FA Cup. However, he was later sacked by Chelsea and would see a bad spell in charge of Everton also end in dismissal.
Regardless, Lampard still goes down as one of the greatest midfielders of his generation and remains a popular figure in the football world. His personal life continues to make headlines, following his marriage to TV presenter Christine Bleakley almost a decade ago.
The couple have spoken honestly about life together during their relationship, while Lampard has also opened up about the tragedy that left him behaving like a ‘zombie’ during the height of his career. Here are some things you might not know about the Chelsea legend.
‘Awkward’ meeting with woman
Lampard met his future wife, TV presenter Christine Bleakley, at the Pride of Britain Awards in 2009.
They got engaged two years later and married in 2015. They now have two children together, five-year-old Patricia and Freddie, two, while the footballer has two other daughters, teenagers Luna and Isla, from his previous relationship with the Spanish model. Elen Rives.
Together, Frank and Christine – who is known for presenting shows such as The One Show and Dancing on Ice – are one of Britain’s most popular celebrity couples, but they say their relationship got off to a ‘difficult’ start when the TV presenter gave him almost no time.
“Frank came up to me and said, ‘I’m watching you on The One Show’,” Christine revealed on Loose Women. “I said, ‘No, you don’t! Who was my guest last night?’ And he could tell me!”
“There was an awkward introduction to the party afterwards,” she added. “I just laughed and we both giggled about it. Then that was it. Somehow he got my number, and I had a hidden number and called my phone on the way home. I answered and it was him.
“I said, ‘Wow, you’re excited!’ as a joke, and we chatted, and he said he enjoyed meeting me and wanted to keep in touch. It was very relaxed.
The TV presenter added: ‘Then he went away with England the next day so I didn’t see him for a few weeks. But we talked on the phone every night while he was away and one night we talked for four hours.
“So by the time we met again a few weeks later, we had gotten over all the awkward conversations. I knew right away that it could be serious because I knew we could be friends and he made me laugh and We laughed a lot. On the phone I am very happy that we met, it was definitely about timing for us.”
A shock family tragedy
In April 2008, Lampard suffered a devastating family tragedy when his mother Pat died at the age of 58.
After being admitted to hospital with pneumonia, she went to intensive care for a “week-long trial”, but although she seemed to be doing better, she suffered a brain haemorrhage and died, leaving her family in shock left.
The Chelsea star, who was 29 at the time, was heartbroken by the tragedy and broke down in tears on the pitch just days later as he scored to send the Blues to the Champions League final for the first time. He subsequently dedicated many of his career successes to his mother, whom he described as his “best friend”.
Years later, he’s still dealing with his grief, admitting he was “a zombie” for the months that followed, knowing he wasn’t “right.”
“That’s the only time I was challenged to my limits in terms of mental health,” he told The Diary of a CEO podcast last year. “I was a mama’s boy growing up. I was dependent on her and as I got older I panicked and thought, ‘What if my mother wasn’t there?’
“I was 29, it was very sudden, I was in a hotel where we were staying before the match, we were playing Wigan in the evening. I got a call from my sister telling me she had become ill and had to go to hospital .
“Mum was doing a little better, then we got a call saying she had died and had a brain haemorrhage,” he continued. “Just as she was getting better everyone was excited, she was dying every now and then so it was the biggest devastation. Years later I realize this happens to so many other people and if you’re a young man who hadn’t I haven’t really lost anyone, you don’t really have the feeling of what that is.’
Lampard went on to say that his mother was ‘everything’ to him and, on reflection, wonders whether he should have left football after the tragedy.
“I lost the person closest to me, everything for me. I will never forget the feeling in my stomach,” he said. “When I talk about it, I immediately understand. I lost my best friend, the person who gave me all those emotional things and warmth. The sudden feeling that someone won’t be with you, that’s not the case.” Nothing compares to it when you are so close.
“I look back and think, ‘Maybe I should have gotten out [football]“Life is bigger than that,” but for me it was probably a small coping mechanism. We played a game against Liverpool, the second leg, and I scored a penalty. We had won the match and now we are sent to the Champions League final.
“I remember sitting in the dressing room afterwards and having a huge feeling of tiredness, physical and mental fatigue,” Lampard added. “I went home and opened a beer, couldn’t even drink it and went to bed, and then everything came out of me, it was a week or two of this complete pain.”
The former Everton manager also said he has kept voice notes of his mother on his phone, while he regrets not taking more videos of her when she was alive. He went on to say that he was glad he met Christine when he did as he was “not right” after his mother’s death.
“I still have her number in my phone and have a few voice notes,” he said. “We’ve never been a family that made videos and stuff, and I wish we were.
“The only thing is that my mother’s 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 it was painful, but now it’s nice because that’s a memory for me.
“The feeling of sadness comes over me every now and then, many years later,” he added. “I think I was probably single for a year and drank a bit, but I played fantastic football. I had a really good year of football, it was strange. Then I met Christine and thank God she came along.” time because I was a little bit wrong.”
Radio row
One year after his mother’s death, Lampard was involved in a live radio row with LBC talk show host James O’Brien as he defended himself against accusations that he was a bad father.
His former partner, Elen Rives, had told a newspaper that the footballer was “heartless” and accused him of making them move into a small flat while he enjoyed a bachelor lifestyle in their old home. After his sister alerted him to the claims being discussed live on radio, Lampard called to defend himself and accused O’Brien of insulting him.
“I find it insulting that you tell me you would fight tooth and nail and insinuate that I would not fight tooth and nail,” he said as he pushed back against the claims. “You know nothing about me and you insinuate that I’m weak and scum because I didn’t fight tooth and nail.
“What I would like you to do in the future is think when it comes to personal issues, about people’s families, about people’s children, and you demean them as human beings. Sometimes you have to think about things before you talk about them, because now you’re talking about personal people. The next time I talk to you man to man, forget the radio show, I’ll talk to you about that man to man.”
He added: “Unfortunately I have to experience this in the public eye. Now someone approached my ex-girlfriend, pretending to be friendly, caught her when she was kind of drunk and down or whatever, and got a load of stuff out of her.
“Someone actually scammed her. She’s been scammed. And by getting scammed and then [it] comes out as a pure quote as if she has sold her story. She gave her story away in a moment of weakness.”