Chelsea captain John Terry joins Aston Villa on a free transfer

Update: It is now official!

Also, props to whoever did this work of social media art:

Since the end of the season and his last game with Chelsea, several teams from England and abroad entered the chase for veteran centre back John Terry. However only one of those teams would come up victorious, and the winner of the race have been announced today... by none other than Aston Villa chairman Tony Xia, who went with an open jab to their local rivals Birmingham City who were also vying for Terry's signature.

36-year-old Terry will be joining Aston Villa on a one-year deal following 22 highly successful years at Chelsea. Since his arrival at the club as a youth player in 1995 from West Ham, JT went on to become one of the best defenders of his generation, captaining the Blues from 2004 until 2017. Mr. Chelsea leaves Stamford Bridge with 717 appearances, 67 goals and 17 trophies, including 5 Premier League titles, 5 FA Cups and the 2011-12 Champions League.

With the Villans, Terry will be working alongside manager Steve Bruce, with whom he played golf during his vacations in Portugal. They will be making their best effort to get Villa back in the Premier League from the Championship, and thus meet the expectations of the outspoken Dr. Xia who offered a very lucrative package to convince Terry to join his club.

Farewell, Terry. Be it at Villa Park or anywhere else, you will always be Mr. Chelsea for all of us.