Juba Touabi, Media365, published on Tuesday December 16, 2025 at 5:45 p.m.
Seventeen years after one of the most dramatic finals of the Champions League, John Terry breaks the silence around an episode which forever marked his career and his personal balance.
In a testimony on Reece Mennie’s podcast, the former Chelsea captain looks back on the 2008 final against Manchester United, and especially on this missed penalty which left an indelible mark. That evening, in Moscow, the Blues are one breath away from the European coronation. John Terry, emblematic leader of the London club, steps forward to take the decisive penalty. But the rain, the stress, fate: he slips, the ball hits the post. Manchester United seized their chance and won. For the former England defender, this sequence marks the start of a long emotional descent.
“I still wake up in the middle of the night”
In the hours that followed, the defender locked himself on the 25th floor of his hotel, alone in his distress. He now confesses to having been overcome by suicidal thoughts. “ I found myself looking out the window and wondering, ‘Why? For what?’. I’m not saying I was going to jump but you know, thoughts go through your mind at that moment. Then the boys came and took me downstairs. It’s in these moments that we say to ourselves ‘what if?’. You never know, right? “, he indicated.
Time has passed, the titles have followed, but the scars remain. John Terry explains that he is still regularly haunted by this Moscow night. Startled awakenings, intrusive memories: “ I still wake up in the middle of the night and say to myself ‘yes, that did happen’, and I don’t think it will ever go away “. Above all, he regrets not having had the resources or the reflex to seek psychological help at the time.
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