Juan Mata wants to become a Chelsea legend like Gianfranco Zola and hopes the Blues fans will one day talk about him in the same breath with the Italian forward.
Mata has made a brilliant start to his Chelsea career, winning the club player of the year award in his first season. While the Spanish international made a slow start to this season, owing largely to the hectic schedule of participating in the Euros as well as the Lodon Olympics, Mata has started to show the form that made him everyone's favorite player at Stamford Bridge.
The playmaker revealed in his official blog, about the visit paid by Dutch legend and former Blues player Ruud Gullit this week at Chelsea's training ground in Cobham, while also mentioning the day he met Zola in the Champions League final last season.
"Ruud Gullit visited us in Cobham," he wrote in his blog. "He's such a Chelsea and a football legend... It was very cool. So now I know him personally and also the great Zola.
"I met Gianfranco during the last Champions League final, two memories I will never forget. What an honor! To be remembered once as they are remembered now would be amazing."
Mata said new signing and fellow Spaniard Cesar Azpilicueta was settling to life in London quite well, while adding he was becoming quite the Londoner himself. "César is learning quickly and getting to know London," he wrote. "I'm sort of his 'tourist guide'.
"I tell him about different areas, restaurants, theatres... It's not that I know the whole city, but little by little I'm becoming a complete Londoner! I already told him to take it easy, he will discover new places every day."
Chelsea have started a youth brigade of their own this season, signing the likes of Eden Hazard, Victor Moses, Marko Marin Kevin De Bruyne and Oscar, and Mata believes, after training with the youth team during the international break, Chelsea's future is in good hands.
"During an international break, many of the club's youth players train with the first team," he added. "They are very good! About 8 or 10 players came to train with us every day and they showed that Chelsea's future is bright with all these talented juniors!
"It was a pleasure to train with them. It reminded me of when I was one of them and I had a dream of becoming a professional player. I hope many of them are lucky and their dreams are fulfilled!"
