'I'm a Chelsea legend who won Ballon d'Or - Todd Boehly didn't even know who I was'

A former icon was left surprised when he met for the first time, only to discover the Blues chairman had no idea who he was. The player, who won the in 1987, moved to Stamford Bridge in 1995 after spending most of his career in the Netherlands and Italy. He helped Chelsea to reach the semi-finals of the in his debut season at the club.

The following campaign, he was appointed player-manager to replace Glenn Hoddle who had taken charge of England. His time on the pitch was limited due to injuries but he excelled in the dugout, leading Chelsea to FA Cup glory in 1997. It saw him become the first black manager to win English football's oldest domestic trophy.

The player in question is of course Ruud Gullit, who recently told about his first meeting with Chelsea chairman Boehly. He said the American billionaire was completely unaware of his legendary status, or that he even played for the Blues.

Gullit recalled: "I met the Chelsea owner, Todd Boehly, introduced myself: 'Hi, I am Ruud Gullit'. Todd said, 'What do you do?'. 'Well I played football, also played and coached for Chelsea'.

"Todd said: 'Oh yeah, when did you play for Chelsea, what did you do for Chelsea?'. He didn't know. Can I blame him? No, I don't think so."

Boehly, who has long been accused of lacking knowledge about football in general, was later accused of being disrespectful towards Gullit by former England striker Darren Bent.

Reacting to the interview on , Bent said: "I think you win a lot of favours if you do your due diligence.

"Everyone's different, but if they just go: 'I don't really care about the supporters and their opinion, but just to endear myself to the supporters, I'm going to go out there, I'm going to meet them, I'm going to know the DNA of the football club'.

"And the supporters will go: 'OK, at least he knows what we're about'. I think a lot of the great owners that we've seen understand that. A prime example at that football club, Roman Abramovich.

"You listen to Chelsea fans speak about him in terms of somebody understanding the football club, always in the background, gave the club every possible opportunity to win. That's how an owner is supposed to be.

"But if one of your club legends walks in and you go, 'Oh, sorry, what do you do?'. It's not so much about ego, that's just a big level of disrespect."