Chelsea icon John Terry has reportedly landed a new lucrative role with Saudi Arabian club Al-Shabab – and the job comes with a perk as the former centre-back will be able to work in the UK. Terry is one of the finest defenders to have come through the Blues academy and helped Chelsea win five Premier League titles and the Champions League during his playing days.
Terry hung up his boots in 2018 following a year with Aston Villa and later became the Villans’ assistant manager under Dean Smith. He stayed in the role for nearly three years but left Villa Park ahead of the 2021/22 campaign, before taking up a job in the Chelsea academy at the start of last year.
The 42-year-old teamed-up with Smith for a second time when his former mentor was appointed Leicester manager towards the end of last season, but returned to Stamford Bridge when the ex-Norwich boss departed the King Power Stadium.
According to CBS Sports, Terry is set to work across recruitment and strategy at Al-Shabab and will help to select the club’s new manager. The position has come about after the ministry of sport gave permission for Muhammad Al-Munjam to become the club’s president. Al-Munjam knows Terry and began his talks with the former England international before he was elected. And Terry will have the comfort of staying close to his family as his day-to-day duties will be based in the UK.
The role appears to be different to the one initially set-out for the Stamford Bridge hero, with the Daily Mail reporting earlier this month that Terry was set to make his first managerial breakthrough at Al-Shabab. But the former star will now be aiming to make his mark from further afield.
Terry has yet to oversee a club as a manager but vowed that he had no intentions of returning to the dugout just before he started his job at Leicester in April.
“Yeah I’m done from a managerial point of view,” he said on Stephen Hendry’s Cue Tips. “The only job I’d kind of come out of retirement for would be the Chelsea job. To be involved in some sort of capacity in a first-team role.
“I love my role at the minute. I’ve got a bit of work with the younger players and I think as well because I’ve been through that process as a kid myself I’m passing on loads of knowledge to them. But I enjoy my golf as well, I want to play a bit of golf and have family time. The reason I left Villa, which I’ve not really said anywhere, was a family reason. Coming back home and being with my family.”
