Frank James Lampard, Jr. (born 20 June 1978) is an English football player currently at Chelsea and previously with West Ham United and Swansea City.
Lampard was born in Romford, London, England. He is the son of Frank Lampard, Sr., the former England full back and two-time FA Cup winner with West Ham United. His family is related to another famous footballing family, the Redknapps. Lampard was educated at Brentwood School, a boys' independent school in Brentwood, Essex.
A current England national team regular, he has won the English Premiership twice (with Chelsea, 2004—05 and 2005—06), the FA Cup (with Chelsea, 2007) twice the League Cup (with Chelsea, 2005 and 2007), the FA Community Shield (with Chelsea, 2005), and the UEFA Intertoto Cup (with West Ham, 1999).
In November 2005 he was named runner-up to Brazilian midfielder Ronaldinho in the European Footballer of the Year awards. A month later he finished in second place, once again behind Ronaldinho, in the 2005 FIFA World Player of the Year awards. He was also named FWA Footballer of the Year in 2005.
Lampard has scored 110 goals for Chelsea (as of 30 April 2008), making him the top goalscorer currently at the club, and 7th highest in total. He is also the highest-scoring midfielder in Chelsea’s history, having passed Dennis Wise's record of 76 goals on 17 December 2006. On 16 February 2008, Lampard became the eighth player to score 100 goals for Chelsea, when he scored twice against Huddersfield Town in the FA Cup.
Lampard has been accused of scoring goals from deflections. However, a report from The Guardian newspaper shows that only six of his goals (6.7 %) for Chelsea have been scored in that way. As Martin Samuel of The Times sarcastically put it: «what a lucky boy he must be: 83 deflections since August 2003.
Lampard is the holder of the Premiership record of playing consecutive league matches dating back to October 13, 2001, set on November 26, 2005, breaking the previous record of 159 appearances by David James. The streak ended on December 28, 2005, after 164 games, when Lampard was taken ill before Chelsea’s game at Manchester City. Lampard’s 16 goals in the 2005-06 season was a record for a midfielder in the English Premier League until that record was beaten a year later by Cristiano Ronaldo.
Lampard is the first Chelsea midfielder to score a hat-trick in both English cup tournaments, against Macclesfield Town in the 2006-07 FA Cup 3rd Round and against Leicester City in the 2007-08 Carling Cup 4th Round.
Lampard belongs to an illustrious football family. His father Frank Sr. was a full-back for West Ham and won two England caps. His uncle Harry Redknapp is also a former West Ham United player and currently manages Premier League side Portsmouth. Lampard’s cousin Jamie Redknapp, now retired, played 17 games for the England football team, and also played club football for Southampton FC, Tottenham Hotspur, Liverpool F.C. and A.F.C. Bournemouth. Lampard’s mother Pat passed away on 24 April 2008 due to pneumonia. He attended his mother’s funeral on the 2 May 2008. Since then, he has dedicated all his goals to his mother, celebrating by pointing to the sky and looking upwards.
He is currently engaged to Elen Rives, who gave birth to the couple’s first child, a girl named Luna Coco Patricia on 22nd August, 2005. Elen gave birth to the couple’s second child, another girl, named Isla, on the 20th May, 2007.
He recently revealed that he and Elen plan on getting married. He is learning Spanish, which has been the partial cause of speculation linking him with a move to the La Liga, until he revealed it was strictly for family reasons, as his partner is Spanish and he wants their daughters to grow up bilingual. Lampard featured in a «Super Goals» advertising campaign for The Sun newspaper in England during Sep/Oct 2005.
In July 2006, The Sun newspaper serialized his autobiography book Totally Frank, uncovering the secrets of his personal life and his reactions of the disappointing World Cup.
He attended the independent, £11,565 a year, Brentwood School in Essex, at which time he was in the same year as model Jodie Marsh and gained an A* in his Latin GCSE.
He currently owns an Aston Martin DB9and a Ferrari 612 Scaglietti. He also has two dogs — both are French mastiffs, named Daphne and Rocco. Politically, Lampard has declared his support for the Conservative Party, although he has recently stated that he has never voted in an election.
