Mario Stanic made his debut on the Premier League stage with a sensational brace against West Ham United on the opening day of the 2000/01 season, including a stunning long-range strike that won the BBC Goal of the Month award. Injury problems followed, but there were flashes of the versatile Croatian’s brilliance throughout his four years at Stamford Bridge.

Everyone who was there remembers your Premier League debut, and that goal against West Ham, 25 years ago…

My God, 25 years. I’m still alive! Actually I scored two, but nobody mentions this!

Yes, you scored a header as well, but the one that stands out…

Yeah, it was a great goal, but everyone is just talking about the first one. I still remember it very well. A lot of people ask me about the feeling and, you know, it’s very difficult to explain. Either you are very lucky to have that kind of experience, or you aren’t. I was really lucky to have the possibility to play this game, to win this game and to score those two goals that were very important. One of them, of course, was an amazing one, but don’t ask me how I did it because it was some kind of moment of inspiration, and that’s it.

But you know what happened, at some point in that game, I got injured. I played the last 30 minutes with an injury, and the adrenaline in my body was so high that I just continued to play. Actually, after that game, my knee was really bad. I went to get an operation to clean the knee, and the cartilage was gone. So, in the same game I touched the sky... and I touched the underground. It was very strange, but this is our life and you never know what you can do and what can happen. This is football. It is the most unpredictable game in the world.

Well, speaking of strange destinies, Chelsea played a part in your story a move ahead of your transfer here! You joined Chelsea from Parma, but it’s interesting because you had arrived at Parma a few years earlier after they sold Gianfranco Zola to us!

Unbelievable. It’s unbelievable because I went to Parma just after Zola went to Chelsea, so we didn’t get to play together at Parma but we met to play at Chelsea. Zola… I love him. He’s such an amazing player, his skills, his quality – he’s like God for Chelsea supporters. They love him. And, as a man, he’s such a big professional and such a nice man. Actually, he was the first one who helped me when I came to Chelsea. He’s a very kind guy, and such a big player.

You spoke a little bit of English when you arrived. How come?

When I first came, it was [Gianluca] Vialli and all his staff were talking Italian. Half the dressing room was talking Italian, half the dressing room were talking English, and that’s how we lived our lives. After Vialli came [Claudio] Ranieri – also Italian – so our official language was English and Italian! We connected by helping each other with English and Italian, translating and everything, but it was a nice experience.

On arrival, you described yourself as ‘the joker in the pack’ due to the fact you could be used in almost any position on the pitch…

Actually, everything started when I was young and starting to play at Zeljeznicar Sarajevo, where they realised some kind of quality I had and I played as a striker, as a centre-back, as a midfielder. When I was young, I wanted to play up front and score the goals, and I was top scorer in Belgium in 1996. I won the league and the cup with Club Brugge, and then I went to play at Euro 96 in England. The national team coach, [Miroslav] Blazovic, offered me to play as a right-back, and for a moment I said: ‘No, I want to play striker.’ Then finally he said: ‘No, I want you to play there because your quality is very important to our team and you can be very dangerous up front, you can cover at the back, you are able to run a lot'.

So I decided to play as a right-back. We played a 3-5-2 formation and I was the fifth man attacking when we had the ball, and the fifth man defending when we didn’t have the ball. I was doing really well, and Parma saw me, and when they realised I could cover this kind of position, they made the decision to buy me. That was my story. Officially, I played every single position, except as a goalkeeper. It’s interesting. I think a lot of players can do that, but there is also some kind of reputation risk if you do it. You just have to be convinced of your own quality, and you need some guts to go on this adventure. That kind of problem I never had, so I decided I would do it and let’s see. It was also a nice challenge for me, and I’m happy now that I did it.

It’s also helped me as a coach. When you have this experience and you want to help some players, you have to be in their shoes. It’s much easier to realise what kind of development they need, and when you have this kind of experience, everything helps you. In football, it’s easy to talk, it’s easy to see it from the bench, it’s easy to see it from the stands, but when you want to do something on the pitch, it’s a completely different story.

You hit a hot streak in the middle of the 2002/03 season, when you scored six goals, and seemed to find the knack of meeting corners and crosses with your head…

Yeah, I was good at that aspect of football. It’s not only about your physical aspect, it’s also about your timing, how you attack the ball, how you have the feeling where the ball will come, and how smart you are to attack the ball in front of the other player. It’s some kind of skill that you can practice, but it’s also something that you have naturally, especially in England where it’s very difficult to score goals by head because physically it’s a very difficult league. It’s tough, but on that aspect I was pretty good so I scored a lot of goals by head.

It probably helped that we had players like Zola, Graeme Le Saux and Emmanuel Petit on set-pieces…

Exactly, the set-pieces and the crosses. When you have good crossers and you have good timing, then it’s much easier to attack the ball and get in front of defenders to score.

The goal highlights reveal that, in your four years at Chelsea, you went through the full range of hair styles!

[Chuckles] Maybe when I cut my hair short when I came to England, it was just to look more dangerous on the pitch! It’s funny, I was just trying to do something different, but now I have long hair again. I played every position, I also did everything with my hair, so the mission is complete!

In later seasons you were more often used on the left, where you produced a memorable display against Leeds on a rainy Wednesday night in January 2002. You tore them apart and the club newspaper, Onside, published a cartoon by Rob Anderson about it!

I remember it a little bit. When I played on the left, it was really good for me, because I could come inside to play and I liked to move, and I was physically very strong, so it was very difficult to catch me. So every single position that I did was good, and it depends on the game, of course, on the opposition and the moment of your team. Sometimes you come into a team that is a bit out of confidence and it doesn’t help you, but when you have the right spirit, the right mentality, and you give your best, I think the supporters and everyone at the club realises your attitude and your effort.

To be honest, I’m not really happy with my career at Chelsea because of my knee. I just think that I didn’t give everything that I could because of my injury. Once the problem started with my cartilage, I was playing one game and then I needed three or four days to rest because my knee was swollen so much. It was the beginning of the end of my career.

Maybe if I’d come two years earlier, it would have been much, much better, but I just tried to give my best. With this kind of injury – a cartilage problem – it was obvious that every six months, every year, it was worse. So I stopped playing at 32.

Which is quite young…

Yeah, and with all my physical capacity and my skills, I think that I could have given more, but unfortunately the knee couldn’t go more. The day when you have to make a decision is quite difficult as well, because half of you still feels good and wants to continue, but the other side is telling you: ‘No, that’s enough’. Actually, it’s fighting with yourself and it’s a difficult moment for anyone. Everybody, some day, is going to stop, and it’s a difficult moment for everyone, especially when you have an injury.

When you see Chelsea play, does it still bring back memories of your time playing at Stamford Bridge?

Yes, it’s always nice. I’m supporting Chelsea, it’s in my heart and it was a beautiful time, a beautiful memory to stay there for four years. Unfortunately, I couldn’t give my best, but I presented myself and I’m still following Chelsea and supporting them. It’s inside of me.