Petr Cech Watched Chelsea's Penalty Shoot Out From Fan's Phone Last Night

In a game fitting of the great man himself, Petr Cech will face former club Chelsea in the Europa League final on May 29th.

Arsenal's season finale will be the 36-year-old's last ever game in professional football after he announced his retirement earlier in the year; and what better way to bow out, playing against the club he spent 11 years with.

Cech confirmed again this week that he will hang up his gloves at the end of the month:

"You have days when you play well and you think you could continue but I think I have made the decision with a lot of thought," Cech said to BT Sport.

"I could possibly go another two years but I would rather retire early than too late. I wanted to do it on my terms.

"The last dream was to play this European final and it has come true, now the dream is to win it."

So how did Cech find out that he would be facing his former club?

It turns out the goalkeeper was watching Chelsea's penalty shoot out against Eintracht Frankfurt from a fan's phone at the Mestalla mixed zone.

Arsenal had just thrashed the Spanish side 4-2, which included a hat-trick from Pierre Emerick Aubameyang, and clearly the 36-year-old was keen to see if he'd come up against Maurizio Sarri's side on May 29th.

Cech believed for some time that it would be his destiny to play against Chelsea in his last game, according to Evening Standard correspondent James Olley.

Cech, who has spent 14 years in England, played for Chelsea and Arsenal during his time in the Premier League, making over 400 appearances for both clubs.

He wrote the following message on Twitter to announce his retirement:

"This is my 20th season as a professional player and it has been 20 years since I signed my first professional contract, so it feels like the right time to announce that I will retire at the end of the season.

"Having played 15 years in the Premier League, and won every single trophy possible, I feel like I have achieved everything I set out to achieve.

"I will continue to work hard at Arsenal to hopefully win one more trophy this season, then I am looking forward to seeing what life holds for me off the pitch."

Cech will undoubtably go down as one of the all time great goalkeepers. Thank you for the memories, Petr.

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Topics: Petr Cech, Football News, phone, Chelsea, Football, Europa League, Soccer, Arsenal

Jack Kenmare

Jack Kenmare is a writer at SPORTbible. He's interviewed some of the biggest names in sport, including Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Pele, Carles Puyol and Tim Henman. He dabbles in all things sport but football is his biggest passion. He was once hit in the head by a wayward strike from Nicky Butt and lived to tell the tale.

@jackkenmare_