Gianfranco Zola confirms possibility of John Terry joining him in Qatar Stars League

Chelsea legend and one of our greatest players ever, Gianfranco Zola is apparently off somewhere in Qatar nowadays, managing a club called Al Arabi in the Qatar Stars League.  Yeah, it was a surprise to me, too.

Zola hasn't had much success on the managerial front since coming oh-so-close to achieving promotion to the Premier League with Watford in 2012-13.  After a miraculous Troy Deeney goal in the semifinal, he lost in extra-time to Crystal Palace in the final, the Richest Game in Football.  A few months into the following season, he was sacked and he's only had one other job since, a three-month stint at Cagliari, where he won just 2 matches out of 10.

He's doing quite a bit better with Al Arabi so far, winning 4 of 6 in the new season and sitting 4th in the 14-team top flight.  And if he gets his way, he may be getting a pretty good upgrade at center back fairly soon.

"John Terry is a big player and Al Arabi is interested in big players so we will see what happens. There is a chance because it is one of the places where people want to go. The quality of life is very high here."

"There are clubs that pay well for the players to come so I wouldn't be surprised if I see John Terry playing in this country maybe next year, maybe in two years I don't know exactly when. The connection is easy me and John played together and have a very high opinion of each other so it comes quite natural to do that."

"I cannot say that it is impossible because you never know. I can tell you there are no contacts right now, thats for sure. We will see because right now we are just month and a half into the season and I am very happy that I am coaching so I didn't even think about changing anybody."

"But in the future we will see. It could be one possibility."

-Gianfranco Zola; source: Evening Standard

The sunset on JT's career seems to have accelerated a fair amount the last couple months and another one-year contract extension is one of the furthest things from anyone's mind at the moment.  The Chelsea captain has spoken before of his intentions to go abroad (rather than to another English team) if he thinks he can still play (just not at a level required for Chelsea), so a nice paycheck in Qatar could certainly be a possibility.  MLS is another obvious option, and in recent months, he had also been linked with a move to Turkey, even.

Terry will turn 35 in December and starting in January, will be free to start discussing his future with other clubs, too.