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Chelsea Football Club (also known as the Blues, previously also known as the Pensioners), founded in 1905, is a Premier League football team that plays at Stamford Bridge football ground in west London. Despite the club's name, it is not based in the Chelsea neighborhood, or even in the Chelsea borough, but instead lies in Hammersmith and Fulham.
In early 2003, Gianfranco Zola was voted as the best ever player of the team by the Chelsea fans.
In July 2003, Chelsea was acquired by Roman AbramovichRoman Arkadievich Abramovich (born October 24, 1966) is a Russian oil billionaire, referred to as one of the Russian oligarchs. Abramovich lost his mother at the age of 18 months, his father subsequently being killed in a construction accident when Abramo, a RussiaThe Russian Federation ( Russian: , transliteration: Rossiyskaya Federatsiya or Rossijskaja Federacija , or Russia (Russian: , transliteration: Rossiya or Rossija , is a country that stretches over a vast expanse of eastern Europe and northern Asia. Withn billionaire. British tabloidA tabloid is a newspaper — especially in the United Kingdom — that uses the tabloid format, which is roughly 23½ by 14¾ inches per spread. This is the smaller of two standard newspaper sizes; the larger newspapers, associated with higher-quality journaliss immediately dubbed the club Chelski. Abramovich used his fortune to wipe out the club's substantial debts at a stroke, and then directed funds towards the acquisition of new players. New signings for the start of the 2003/04Events in the 2003-04 English football season August 2003 to July 2004: Events 29 February 2004: Middlesbrough win their first ever trophy as a professional club by beating Bolton Wanderers in the League Cup final. 5 March 2004: Three Leicester City playe season included the IrishThe Republic of Ireland ( Irish: Poblacht na hEireann is the common term for a state which covers approximately five-sixths of the island of Ireland, off the coast of northwest Europe. It is the western-most state of the European Union. The remaining sixt left winger Damien Duff, the Cameroon international right-sided midfielder Njitap Geremi , French midfielder Claude Makelele who joined from Real Madrid the Argentinian striker Hernán Crespo, promising English youngsters Wayne Bridge , Glen Johnson and Joe Cole and the Argentinian midfielder Juan Sebastian Veron, who was out of favour at Manchester United. During the christmas transfer period the young English midfielder Scott Parker joined after having impressed during the first half of the season at Charlton Athletic. Despite finishing runners-up in Premier League during the 2003-2004 season, and reaching the semi finals of the Champions League, manager Claudio Ranieri was sacked on 31 May 2004.
José Mourinho was appointed as Manager and Coach on 2 June 2004, one week after managing FC Porto to the Champions League title.
With the recent signings of Didier Drogba, Mateja Kezman, Paulo Ferreira, Ricardo Carvalho, Arjen Robben, Petr Cech and Tiago, among others, Abramovich's spending on players since purchasing the club has now exceeded £200 million. As of this writing (24 November 2004), Chelsea is on top of the Premier League and has also advanced to the knockout phase (round of 16) of the UEFA Champions League.
