Chelsea signed Tal Ben Haim from Bolton in 2007, but John Terry claimed they were lucky to have secured such a move before asking the Blues captain if he could have his shirt number.
Former Chelsea defender Tal Ben Haim was “extremely lucky to have moved”, according to former captain John Terry. He reportedly told his new players that they could never come close to wearing his famous No. 26 shirt.
The Israel international was so impressed with Bolton that manager Jose Mourinho opted to sign him just weeks before he was sacked at Stamford Bridge in 2007. It was a big step forward for Ben Haim, who made a bold request to Terry to take over his number.
Terry wore the number throughout his time at the Blues and was club captain, but was happy to tell Ben Heim to choose a different number. He stayed in west London for just one year before being sold to Manchester City.
Within weeks of his transfer, Ben Haim started playing under Mourinho’s replacement, fellow Israeli Abram Grant, and the two often clashed during training sessions.
Terry said on the Obi Wan Podcast: “Tal was a funny guy. I think he knew he was very lucky to have moved to Chelsea. Me and Tal are good friends and we still talk a lot. He was 26 at Bolton so he came to ask for the number 26 shirt and we immediately put it on and told him where to go.”
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“He and Abram Grant were fighting each other every day. They obviously knew each other and spoke their language and were fighting each other all the time. And Abram kicked him out of training and said, ‘You can’t train with the group.’ He just kicked him off the field and said, ‘You’re not allowed in when the first team is here.’
Ben Haim ended up playing just 13 games in total for the Blues. He went on to play for a number of English clubs, including Sunderland, Portsmouth, West Ham, Queens Park Rangers and Charlton, but struggled to regain the form he had when Mourinho signed him.
John Obi Mikel has detailed the training session in which Ben Haim clashed with Andriy Shevchenko, and even in his short spell at Chelsea, the defender managed to rub a number of people the wrong way.
“It was a five-a-side game. Five-a-side games are where that always happens. So we were training and playing and[Tal]kept tackling and kicking everyone. And, you know, Chef never speaks. He was very quiet.”
“But Tal kept at it, kept kicking, and Chef was completely defeated. So after the last one, Chef got up and boom! They both started punching each other, and we all jumped in, it was crazy. That’s the funny moment with Tal.”
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