Player #909 for Aston Villa, John Terry played as a centre back for the club during the 2017-18 Football League Championship campaign.

Terry was born in Barking on 7 December 1980.

Villa had signed Terry on a free transfer from Chelsea on 1 July 2017 for whom he had been the most successful captain in the West London club's history.

Terry made his competitive debut for Villa in the 1-1 home draw with Hull City on Saturday, 5 August 2017 at the age of 36.

The decorated and celebrated Terry took to life at Villa Park seamlessly after a career at Chelsea and proved a talismanic leader on and off the field making 36 appearances.

Terry scored his only goal for the club in the 2-1 Championship win over Fulham on Saturday, 21 October 2017.

Terry made his final appearance for Villa in the play off final defeat to Fulham on Saturday, 26 May 2018 before retiring from playing but that was not to be his final contribution to the Villa caused as he returned to Villa as assistant to manager Dean Smith in October 2018 and helped lead Villa back into the Premier League for the 2019-20 season and retain their top flight status ahead of the 2020-21 campaign.

Terry is credited with playing an instrumental role in the development of Villa’s young defenders - such as Ezri Konsa - and the transformation of Villa’s back line in the 2020-21 season to enable them to have kept 9 clean sheets in 14 games to the end of 2020.

In 2020-21 Terry went on to create a strong back-room partnership with Craig Shakespeare, Richard O’Kelly and fellow former player Neil Cutler that supported Dean Smith’s and Villa’s development in fine style.

Terry with his focus on the defensive side of the game turned an at times porous defence into a unit that in 2020-21 saw only six teams conceding fewer goals than Villa, as they finished 11th in the table.

In June 2021 Terry celebrated his attainment of the UEFA Pro Licence - the highest level coaching qualification available in Europe - and having been linked with numerous vacant managerial posts during his time with Villa, and turning down a number of concrete offers, Terry decided to leave Dean Smith’s coaching team in July 2021 to focus on obtaining his first full managerial post during the 2021-22 season.

As Terry himself explained:

“It has been a tremendous honour and privilege to have spent these last three years at Aston Villa, but I feel now is the right time to make the extremely difficult decision to move on.

“I want to be as respectful to the manager and everyone at Aston Villa as I can and, having given my future serious consideration over the summer, I genuinely don’t feel it is fair to move into a new season without being certain of seeing that through.

“My immediate plan is to spend some quality time with my family and, thereafter, hopefully take up some invitations to visit clubs and managers around Europe to develop my aim and objective of becoming a manager.

“It has always been my ambition to move into football management and, providing the right opportunity presents itself, I feel ready to take up such a challenge.

“I would like to thank Christian Purslow and our owners, Wes Edens and Nassef Sawiris, for believing in me and giving me the opportunity.

“And I will forever be indebted to the gaffer for giving me the opportunity to start my coaching career at such a wonderful club. I have loved every minute of it and learnt so much.

“I can’t thank Dean enough for the support and guidance he has provided me with and I’m sure he will continue to lead the club from strength to strength.

“Finally, I would also like to thank all the players and staff and wish them all the very best for the season ahead and say a huge thank you to the wonderful Aston Villa fans for their support.”