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During Chelsea Football Club's formative years at the beginning of the
last century, they fielded a gargantuan goalkeeper by the name of
William 'Fatty' Foulke. Weighing in at 22 stone, he was a fearsome
character who, legend has it, once picked up an opposing forward and
dangled him by his ankles in the goalmouth for making an ill-judged
comment. Seventy years later The Blues unearthed his eccentric successor
between the sticks when Danny Blanchflower recruited the flamboyant
Yugoslav Petar Borota from Partizan Belgrade. Signed for £70, 000 in
March 1979 to replace the departing legend Peter Bonetti, he acquitted
himself superbly on his debut later that month as he kept a clean sheet
in a 0-0 draw with European champions Liverpool at Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea were bottom of the First Division when Borota joined and were
relegated within weeks of his arrival, indeed he might have wondered
what he'd let himself in for three weeks after his debut when he was
forced to pick the ball out of the net six times at Nottingham Forest.
He subsequently played the remainder of his career with The Blues in
Division Two. He established himself in the team during the following
campaign, missing just one game as Chelsea finished fourth in Division
Two.
Petar enjoyed a wonderful relationship with the supporters who
relished his outrageous acrobatics and regular forays up-field. He in
return would celebrate goals scored, often a rare event at the time,
exuberantly with the supporters behind his goal. His popularity was
never better exemplified than at Southampton in January 1981 when he
stepped in to quell a near-riot which was breaking out behind him. His
playing style often had the fans' hearts in their mouths and the
inevitable finally happened in February when he was caught in possession
by Watford's Malcolm Poskett as he dallied with the ball 30 yards from
goal, allowing the Watford man to score the only goal of the game.
Borota did, however, keep 16 clean sheets in 1980/81 and that, allied to
the fact that Chelsea failed to score in 19 of their last 22 league
matches, made him the obvious choice for the Player of the Year award.
The Blues appointed John Neal as manager in the summer of 1981 but he
was unconvinced by the Yugoslav.
Petar began the season in the team but
was dropped in October after refusing the manager's requests to cut out
the eccentricities. He returned to the side for six more appearances,
including a 6-0 defeat at Rotherham, but continued to exasperate Neal
and he was eventually replaced permanently by 17 year-old Steve Francis.
In keeping with his outrageous career to date, Borota left Chelsea for
Brentford on a free transfer the following summer only to sign for
Benfica before he had made a single appearance for the Griffin Park
club. (Kelvin Barker).
He also played for:
1982–1983 Portimonense 7
1983–1984 Boavista 15
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