CBEs, OBEs and MBEs are prominent in Great Britain’s honours system and our latest signing Raheem Sterling has the rare distinction of being a player arriving at Stamford Bridge with one of those already to his name.

His MBE was awarded in 2021 for services to racial equality in sport, adding him to the notable group of Chelsea players with orders of chivalry.

Some have come their way after their Chelsea careers but there are others who collected their accolade while at the club. As we welcome Raheem to the royal Blues family, we take a look here at a selection of those who have graced the club and have a British gong to their name.

An early honour for a Chelsea player of the past came the way of Tommy Walker, a true football star of the immediate post-war period.

A master of the dribble and the surging run, the skilful Scot was given the nickname the ‘Ace of Hearts’, a nod to the Edinburgh club where he had played previously. During his two-and-a-half seasons at Stamford Bridge, playing in a role that today would be described as a ‘no.10’, Walker scored at a rate of a goal every four games.

He left in 1948 and returned to Scotland where he went into management, including at Hearts where he later became a director. In 1960 he was awarded the OBE for his services to football.

Another Scot to follow a similar but later path was Tommy Boyd, although he spent just one season in London between playing for Motherwell and Celtic. He gained an OBE two decades ago.

By the time John Hollins returned to Stamford Bridge for his second spell as a player in 1983, he had been bestowed with an MBE for services to football following a stellar career in London with Chelsea, Arsenal and QPR.

A product of the club's outstanding youth system in the early 1960s, Hollins made his professional debut at the age of 17 and was a mainstay of the teams that won the FA Cup, Cup Winners' Cup and League Cup in the space of a few seasons. He is the only player prior to Sterling we have signed with an honour.

‘I can’t believe they have let people from Birmingham into the Palace, especially my family!’ joked Chelsea Women legend Karen Carney after she emerged with her MBE back in 2017.

‘I found out towards the end of November,’ she recalls. ‘I was away with England and my mum rung me up, she was so emotional she couldn’t spit it out. I thought I was in trouble, but she then said I’d been awarded an MBE.’

With well over 100 England caps to her name, and wearing some Chelsea blue to the ceremony, Carney was a Double winner and Player of the Year at the club.

Her manager during those successes, Emma Hayes, had been in charge of our Women’s team for four years when she was invited to meet Her Majesty The Queen for a special ceremony, at which she was given an MBE for her services to football.

Following a further raft of trophies in the next six years as Blues boss, Hayes was honoured with an OBE earlier this year for the same reason and described the award as ‘a huge shock’.

Joining Chelsea with an honour to your name is one thing but earning the accolade for your achievements at the club is extra special for us. That was the case for our record goalscorer Frank Lampard, who was awarded an OBE in the Birthday Honours of 2015 shortly after his 13-year Blues playing career had come to an end.

The midfielder rated the accolade just as special as anything he had achieved on the field as a player, commenting: ‘For me as a personal achievement goes, it ranks right up there with my achievements on the pitch and what I won with Chelsea.’

Mark Hughes has the distinction of being named in the Queen’s Honour’s List while a Chelsea player. His enduring quality in taking the attack to defences during a distinguished career earned him a day away from training to collect an MBE in 1998. That was upgraded to an OBE in 2004, by which time Sparky the combative striker had transformed into the Wales national team manager, the first step on his lengthy managerial career.

Hughes partner in attack during a great era for Chelsea was Gianfranco Zola. While non-British nationals are generally outside the remit of being honoured by the UK Government, exceptions to the rule do exist and Zola’s imprint not just on south-west London but English football at large was deemed worthy of such recognition.

The Italian magician was awarded an honorary OBE in 2004 following his return to Italy after eight dazzling years as a Blue, during which time he delighted not just Chelsea supporters but the wider footballing public at large with his eye-catching skills and technique.

Zola described the honour as particularly special for recognising his wider achievements off the field, remarking at the time: ‘When you are awarded for playing good football you are happy but this is something more. This award gives me the sensation to be appreciated also as a man.’

In some eyes it took an inordinate length of time for Jimmy Greaves’ goalscoring contribution to English football to be recognised but his MBE arrived in the New Year’s honours at the start of 2021, some 60 years since he was shining for Chelsea at the start of his career, and a few months before his passing.

Two players from the early days of the Chelsea women’s team, Casey Stoney and Fara Williams, both England players, were awarded MBEs years after their Blues careers.

Len Casey, a ball-winning midfielder who featured for us in the 1950s and until his very recent passing had been our oldest surviving former player, was another of those to be honoured after his Chelsea stint had come to an end.

In fact, Casey’s awarding of an MBE came in recognition of his second career after football once he had become a staff training officer at the General Electric Company.

Steve Holland, the current England men’s team assistant manager and an important coaching influence under several Chelsea managers, when many trophies including the Champions League were captured, also now has the letters MBE after his name.

A higher honour than the MBE or the OBE, the CBE has been given to our former defender Paul Elliott. The first black player to captain Chelsea, Elliott is similar to Sterling in receiving his honour for services to equality and diversity in football, having previously been an MBE and devoted much of his post-football career to that important work.

His was a career on the pitch that finished far too early as having got off to a flyer after arriving at Chelsea, he suffered a horrible knee injury inflicted on him by a controversial tackle at Anfield.

Ron Greenwood, who played in our first league championship-winning season of 1954/55, was another CBE recipient, decades later and while he was the England national team manager.

So have there been any Chelsea footballing knights?

It is certain Sir Geoff Hurst received his high honour far more for scoring a hat-trick in England’s only World Cup final win than for his brief stint as our manager. Our life-president Richard Attenborough who we lost in 2014, through his stellar career in cinema progressed from CBE to knighthood to becoming a lord.