Although the English top flight has been packed with overseas stars over the past two decades, it may come as a surprise to Chelsea supporters to learn that only seven Germany internationals have pulled on the famous blue shirt for our men's team.

Three players have contributied to Premier League titles, while only one of our league wins (2016/17) was achieved without the help of a player from Germany.

Antonio Rudiger, Timo Werner and Kai Havertz may not have won the Premier League during their time at the Bridge but all contributed to our Champions League triumph in 2021, and while Marko Marin was only in the Blues' first team for a season before heading out on loans, he was part of a squad that won the Europa League in 2013.

Our focus today, however, is on those who lifted the Premier League trophy, and here is a reminder of how they wrote their names into Blues' history.

The first of our Premier League-winning Germans was Robert Huth, who won a hat-trick of Young Player of the Year awards at the club from 2003 onwards, after coming up through the ranks under the tutelage of legendary Chelsea defender Steve Clarke during his time working with our youngsters.

His no-nonsense style of defending and penchant for a blockbuster strike made him something of a cult hero at the Bridge, and he was even occasionally deployed as a makeshift centre-forward. Unfortunately for Huth, he found his path to regular first-team football blocked by some of the greatest centre-halves in our history: Marcel Desailly, William Gallas, Ricardo Carvalho and, of course, John Terry.

Though he had his moments and was a popular member of the squad throughout his time here, his contribution to our back-to-back title wins in 2005 and 2006 was 10 and 13 appearances respectively.

The first of those league victories occurred on a balmy May afternoon at Stamford Bridge as we lifted the trophy for the first time following our win over Charlton Athletic. Huth left his mark on the jubilant supporters in our west-London home by commandeering a groundsman’s buggy to tear around the pitch with several million pounds worth of team-mates in tow!

Following our second Premier League title, he left the club in search of regular football, and a decade later he added a third winners’ medal to his collection, forming one half of Leicester's rock-solid centre-back pairing in their miraculous 2015/16 season under Claudio Ranieri, the manager who gave him his debut at Chelsea.

Huth announced he had retired in January 2000 at the age of 34. His 322 Premier League appearances are more than any other German player, having also featured for Middlesbrough and Stoke City in the top flight.

In the same summer that we said goodbye to Huth, Stamford Bridge welcomed another German international in Michael Ballack. Arguably the greatest German of his generation, he accrued a fantastic 42 goals from 98 international appearances.

Although unable to match his pre-Chelsea record of netting a goal roughly every two games – which had helped Bayern Munich to numerous major honours during his time there – the Germany skipper's professionalism and desire to win made him a popular figure with fans and team-mates.

Having won the Carling Cup in his first season in west London – but missing out on FA Cup glory after injury ruled him out of a final reached thanks to his semi-final winner against Blackburn – it was in 2007/08 that Ballack really showed what he was made of.

The No. 13 came into the side after injury delayed his start to the campaign and was one of the driving forces behind our bid to win the Treble, scoring several vital goals, including a brace against Manchester United, helping take the title race to the last day.

Alas, we would end that campaign empty-handed, but Bally helped rectify that a year later as we defeated Everton to win the FA Cup. And he was a crucial member of our Double-winning squad in 2009/10, with his good form in front of goal helping to get the season off to an impressive start.

Ballack left Chelsea to return to Bayer Leverkusen following the expiration of his contract, having appeared in 167 games, netting on 26 occasions, and we were even treated to a reunion when he returned to the Bridge with his new team in the group stage of our 2012 Champions League-winning campaign.

Completing our list of Premier League winners from Germany is Andre Schurrle, who signed from Bayer Leverkusen in 2013. An adaptable forward who could feature anywhere across the front-line, his blistering pace made him a huge threat to opposition defenders.

The No. 14 enjoyed a decent first campaign at the Bridge, and the highlight was his hat-trick in the west-London derby against Fulham at Craven Cottage, when he took only 16 second-half minutes to net one of our fastest top-flight trebles.

Schurrle also scored in vital Premier League wins over Manchester City and Arsenal, the latter a thumping 6-0 victory, while he also found the back of the net in our famous Champions League comeback versus Paris Saint-Germain.

Later in 2014 he joined an elite group of Chelsea players to win the World Cup, and he returned from setting up the winner in the final in Brazil to score the third goal in our win over Burnley to open the domestic campaign in style.

Chelsea players have netted plenty of spectacular opening-weekend goals during the Premier League era and this was another to add to the collection. The Clarets were on the end of the ultimate team goal against the Blues to kick off the 2014/15 campaign as a flowing move culminated with Cesc Fabregas laying a dreamy pass into the path of Schurrle to beat Tom Heaton.

Although he departed for Wolfsburg midway through that season, Schurrle made enough appearances to earn a Premier League winner's medal, and his tally of 14 goals had come in 65 appearances, only 35 of which were starts.