Gordon Ramsay, Jeremy Clarkson and Other Famous Fans That Support Chelsea FC
The reality of London clubs is that they are always more likely to pick up supporters than those based outside of the capital, simply on account of the fact that they are easy to discover and more simple to attend the matches of than those further afield.
In the case of Chelsea, the club’s success under the Russian billionaire owner Roman Abramovich will also have worked to welcome in what might otherwise be called ‘fair-weather’ fans, happy to turn up at Stamford Bridge because they knew the club was more likely to win than not. Some of the famous supporters are genuine, others are probably better described as ‘when it suits’.
The list is far from exhaustive, but it will hopefully give you a sense of the kinds of celebrities that have chosen to support Chelsea for whatever reason:
Gordon Ramsay
A chef who comes from Scotland might not be the first person you would think of as being a big Chelsea fan, but Gordon Ramsay actually played football himself before turning to the kitchen when he was younger, being part of the Glasgow Rangers youth system prior to suffering an injury that ended that dream.
The man who has made a name for himself ending the dreams of lesser chefs even saw his own son, Jack, go to Chelsea on trial. Ramsey has often taken part in the likes of Soccer Aid, whilst also being a friend of David Beckham, so his footballing credentials can’t be questioned, even if the club he supports can be.
Charlize Theron
Is Charlize Theron the sort of supporter who is taking to message boards or jumping on to social media in order to say the manager should be sacked? Probably not, but in both 2009 and 2011 she was seen not only attending matches but also posing in a club shirt with her name put on the back of it.
The fact that Arsenal supporters also believe that Theron is one of their own is perhaps an indication that all is not quite right when it comes to her loyalty to the shirt. It is something of a lesson in never quite believing people when they pose for their own benefit, especially if they’re a liar by profession.
Jeremy Clarkson
Someone whose love of Chelsea is most definitely not in doubt is season ticket holder Jeremy Clarkson. Whether Chelsea fans would actually want to claim him as one of their own is a different matter entirely, but there’s no getting away from the fact that he cheers on the Blues every chance he gets.
Although he didn’t grow up in London, he did refer to himself as ‘Doncaster’s only Chelsea supporter’. He not only began supporting the Stamford Bridge side before Abramovich arrived with his billions, he carried on doing so when the Russian sold the club, perhaps marvelling at what a car crash things then became.
Damon Albarn
Picking up his season ticket for Chelsea at the start of the 1990s, the frontman of Blur and the Gorillaz is not only regularly snapped at Stamford Bridge, he’s also been invited to head along to the Cobham Training Centre in order to mingle with the players. The rest of the time, he enjoys aimed digs at Tottenham Hotspur.
His decision to refer to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium as a ‘large music venue in North London’ caused something of a social media storm, but ultimately it is exactly the sort of banter that football supporters should be getting involved in. For the man himself, he’s just happy if he gets to see his team win.
Nigella Lawson
Having lived in Kensington and Chelsea for years, Nigella Lawson was almost destined to begin supporting the club simply by way of osmosis. In 2020, she referred to herself on social media as an ‘erstwhile fan’, whilst eight years earlier she was in The Standard saying that football ‘stirs’ her, whatever that means.
As a chef who became one of the biggest names in the business, Lawson knows all about public scrutiny and might well have wanted to distance herself from some of the less savoury aspects of Chelsea’s supporter base. Still, she is the sort of person who’s happy if the team wins and able to cope if they don’t.
Emma Watson
The first football match that Emma Watson ever attended was at Stamford Bridge, invited by then-owner Roman Abramovich to see if the Harry Potter actress could put a spell on the opposition players. The second game that she attended was also at the Bridge, which is a big part of the reason she’s on this list.
Although it’s highly unlikely that Watson will be trying to get dodgy streams in order to watch 3pm kick-offs, it does seem as though she has a penchant for Chelsea if she’s in the mood for a football match. Quite how often that happens is a matter for some debate, but the club’s supporters are still happy to claim her.
Benedict Cumberbatch
In reality, Benedict Cumberbatch has never publicly stated one way or the other which football team he supports. The star of countless movies, TV shows and stage performances, Cumberbatch has been spotted at Stamford Bridge in the past, whereas he hasn’t been seen at other football clubs in the same way.
In 2020, Chelsea’s official website published an article in which a supporter said that The Imitation Game, in which the actor plays Alan Turing, was their favourite film, which might also have increased the speculation. More than anything else, though, the fact that he grew up in West London points people that way.
John Major
There is a curious thing about politicians, in that they desperately want to be associated with a football club to make them look like men or women ‘of the people’, but the supporters of those clubs rarely want that association. For proof of that, you need only look at the recent furore over Nigel Farage and Ipswich Town.
In the case of John Major, however, the former Conservative Party leader has always been welcomed at Stamford Bridge, largely because his support of the club has seemed genuine from the off. The fact that he’s often thought of as being quite dull certainly doesn’t hurt in that no one really cares one way or the other.
David Baddiel
There is probably a line about needing a sense of humour to support Chelsea, with David Baddiel’s comedy chops therefore serving him well on that front. In reality, he has been a Chelsea fan since he was a child and would often be seen wearing one of the club’s shirts when recording Fantasy Football with Frank Skinner.
He admitted in a Guardian article that it was his older brother, Ivor, who supported Chelsea first, with David simply choosing to fall in with him. The club, he said, ‘seemed very glamorous’, which was a thought that was soon proven to be wrong when he got to attend games at the ‘very violent’ Shed end of the ground.
Will Ferrell
Speaking of needing a sense of humour, quite how loyal Will Ferrell is to Chelsea is certainly a matter of some debate. Frank Lampard met the star of films such as Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy and Step Brothers when the pair were in Seattle, later saying that Ferrell was a ‘closet Chelsea fan’.
Nowadays, Ferrell is the co-owner of Los Angeles Football Club, which means that his passion for football has been poured into that club. It also means that we don’t really know whether he still keeps an eye out for the Chelsea results, given the fact that any mention of the sport is all centred on LAFC.
Jeremy Vine
Head to Stamford Bridge for any given home match and there is a very real chance that you will see Jeremy Vine there. As the host of numerous shows that seem to be all about people arguing, Vine is well versed in what it takes to get involved in any chats about following your football club through thick and thin.
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When Leicester City won the title in 2016, Vine took two Foxes fans out for lunch before going to the game, having also worked hard to indoctrinate his daughter into the ways of supporting the Blues. Regularly posting about Chelsea results on social media, Vine is a definite fan who’s had a season ticket for years.