Correction appended
You have to be a careful water boy when Chelsea is in town. Along with the two-time defending English Premier League Champions comes their billionaire owner Roman Abramovich.
Abramovich was sitting on a water cooler, watching his team practice on the intramural field at UCLA to get ready for its Aug. 5 matchup with the MLS All-Stars in Chicago.
“(Chelsea) had a water break,” UCLA defender Greg Folk said. “So one of the other water boys, a young guy, just kinda moved (Abramovich) off, so he could give water to the players. Then the water boy sat down on the cooler. It wasn’t a big deal at the time but then an American personnel (member) came over and started yelling at us for kicking Roman Abramovich off the cooler, basically being overprotective of the owner.”
Chelsea is in the U.S. to start off its preseason in an attempt to increase international support for the club. Before traveling to Chicago, the team has a weeklong training session in Los Angeles. Fans have lined the fences of the intramural field every day to catch glimpses of their favorite stars, such as team captain John Terry and Joe Cole, who represented England in the World Cup, and recent addition Andriy Shevchenko, captain of Ukraine’s first side to qualify for the World Cup.
UCLA soccer players were able to get close to the international stars, thanks to their coach, Jorge Salcedo.
“Our coach just saw us out watching the training through the fence and he asked one of their managers if we could join them on the field and maybe carry some water around,” Folk said.
Members of both the men and women’s soccer teams have been given all sorts of odd jobs while Chelsea is in town, from being water boys to moving goals to keeping fans from encroaching on the practice field.
The opportunity for the UCLA team to watch one of the top teams in the world play did not go unappreciated by Salcedo’s players.
“It’s really a great honor,” UCLA defender Brandon Owens said. “It’s real cool to be out here with world-class players – people that you see on TV. To actually have them be a few feet in front of you, and actually talk to you, and be pretty genuine nice guys, and you get their autograph, it’s a real nice experience.”
Even the coach has taken advantage of having guests in Westwood, learning from acclaimed manager Jose Mourinho.
“Jose Mourinho is one of the top managers in the world,” Salcedo said. “Some of the ways he prepares his team, some of the ways he warms his team up, his enthusiasm, his involvement, his seriousness, there’s so much you can take from everything they’re training.”
At the same time, the Chelsea players are enjoying their opportunity to be in Los Angeles.
“I went to see Venice Beach,” midfielder Joe Cole joked. “I saw the big guys there lifting weights. I was gonna go in there myself but I didn’t see dumbells that small in there.”
The players, who are huge celebrities back home, enjoy the ability to be slightly more anonymous in the U.S., where the sport is not as popular.
“People don’t recognize you in America because obviously football isn’t as big as the other sports,” Cole said. “We went down Rodeo Drive and no one recognized us. It was nice.”
Joining the team in Los Angeles will be German-national-team captain Michael Ballack, who will be forced to undergo a Chelsea tradition: All new Chelsea players have to get up in front of the rest of the team and perform a song. That includes multi-million-pound signee Ballack and Shevchenko, who signed for a club-record fee at an estimated 30 million pounds.
“There’ve been a few shocking ones so far,” Terry said. “A few of the younger lads have gone up. We’ve got one every day. (Salomon) Kalou went last night. It was absolutely terrible.”
Terry and his teammates have dominated the English Premier League with Abramovich in the owner’s box, winning the title two years running. The Champions League, however, that follows regular season play, has as of yet eluded Chelsea, and it is with that in their sights that they begin this year’s campaign.
“Domestically we’re doing very well and we want to improve on that year after year,” Terry said. “But the ultimate obviously is the Champions League and every squad is desperate for it.”
Before they begin the run for a Champions League title that went to Liverpool two seasons ago, they will face off against an American side that has not been a complete pushover in years past.1
“They’re in the middle of their season, they’re very fit,” Cole said. “We played (D.C. United) last year and they went one-nil up, they looked very strong, had lots of good players. They’ve proven over the years – the Americans – that they can compete at the top level and they’ve some very good players.”
1 CORRECTION : This sentence was changed to read “two seasons ago."