London, Feb 1 (IANS) Chelsea captain John Terry confirmed that he has been refused an extension of his contract and will have to end his 18-year professional career at the English Premier League champions.
The 35-year-old defender, who joined the club at the age of 14, was informed on Sunday the club would not be offering him a third 12-month extension at a meeting before last weekend’s win at Arsenal, Xinhua reported.
Terry, capped 78 times, has won four Premier League titles, five FA Cups and three League Cups with the club and has also won the Europa League and Champions League.
He said after Chelsea’s 5-1 win over MK Dons in the FA Cup, “It’s not going to be a fairytale ending, I’m not going to retire at Chelsea. I was in last week before the Arsenal game and it’s not going to be extended.”
He added, “The club will move on. No player is ever bigger than the club. Ideally I would have loved to stay but the club’s moving in a different direction. No doubt they’ll sign one or two great centre-backs.”
He said that he will never play for another club in the Premier League.
“No. I couldn’t do that to the Chelsea fans. I couldn’t play for another Premier League club. It will be elsewhere for sure. I don’t know where, and I leave that to the people in charge, but it certainly won’t be in the Premier League.”