Frank Lampard - Biography

England and Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard was born on June 20, 1978 in Romford, England. He was brought up in a very footballing family, with his father Frank Lampard senior, nephew Jamie Redknapp and uncle Harry Redknapp it was very hard for Frank to go in any other line than being a football player. Throughout his career, Frank has always had ample support from his family which has helped him develop as a player. He started off playing football in his back garden, with his father always ever present to encourage him. One of his first football clubs was that of Heath Park, a local side to Frank, located in Essex.

He then went for trials at Tottenham, Arsenal and West Ham youth academies. Although he thought Tottenham's was the best, he decided to join West Ham's in 1994 because of family connections, with his father being an assistant coach. In the following season, after signing his professional forms, he joined Swansea on loan. Although the training facilities weren't as good as West Ham's, it certainly helped his strength and physical side of the game. He had to wait until the 1998-99 season to become a regular in the West Ham starting line up, and scored six goals as West Ham finished fifth that season. Lampard was becoming more and more renown for his goal-scoring abilities, especially from long range. His 1999-00 season was the best he had for West Ham, scoring 14 goals and the next term he finished with 9 goals to his name, that, along with covering his defensive duties in the midfield.

The England midfielder left West Ham in 2001, after bids from Leeds and Chelsea were accepted. He decided to join Chelsea, as they appeared much more enthusiastic about the potential of Frank Lampard playing in Chelsea blue than Leeds did. Frank Lampard's career at club level and international level was really starting to progress in the right direction. In his first two seasons at Stamford Bridge, Lampard failed to hit double figures, however, started winning Chelsea supporters over following his move from one of Chelsea's biggest rivals, West Ham United. Lampard first got his hands on some silverware in 2005, winning the Premiership with Chelsea and was selected as Chelsea's player of the season, was the FWA (Football Writers' Association) Football Player of the Year and was selected in the FIFPro World XI. Since then, Lampard has been known as one of the best attacking midfielders in the world and has backed that statement up by consistently scoring 20 goals a season for Chelsea in the past four years. In 2008, Lampard scored his 100th goal for Chelsea in an FA Cup tie against Huddersfield Town, a special moment for himself and the supporters.

Although Lampard has been highly successful at club level, at times he has struggled at international level. His earlier days of playing for England were very enjoyable, and was crowned England player of the year in 2004 and 2005. However, in more recent years he has failed to live up to his high standards for England, and has had many critics, including the harsh England supporters at Wembley.