During that period, we’ve had many fine players pull on the Chelsea blue and grace the beautiful game, both domestically and from around the globe.

The names write themselves. Gianfranco Zola. Didier Drogba. Ruud Gullit. Eden Hazard. Marcel Desailly. Petr Cech. N’Golo Kante. We could go on.

Yet a name that perhaps goes under the radar is Nils Middelboe.

Hailing from Denmark, Nils – nicknamed ‘the Great Dane’ – arrived at Chelsea in 1913 and in doing so, officially became our first foreign player. Then, on that November day in 1919, would net our first goal from an overseas player. History indeed.

That came against Preston North End in a 4-0 win. And the only reason the Denmark international was playing was because he answered the SOS call of secretary-manager, David Calderhead two months prior.

This was because, throughout his time at Stamford Bridge, Middelboe played as an amateur footballer.

He had won silver medals for Denmark in the Olympic Games of 1908 and 1912, and indeed had scored the first-ever Olympic football goal. He was a very talented player.

However, he retained his amateur status for the whole of his stay at Chelsea and worked in a nearby bank, despite the fact he could have trebled his salary by becoming a professional footballer.

So, in September 1919, a letter was sent to one of the most celebrated players of the club’s early years to ask whether he could make himself available from his current profession as a city banker for that weekend’s fixture. Imagine that happening today!

'Dear M.,' the letter read. 'I’m sending you two tickets for Saturday’s game. I hope you will let me know as soon as you feel the desire to play. We can hardly do without you.

‘Currently we are doing well, but we may soon be in trouble, and it will be good to know if you will be available. Please let me know if you need more tickets.

‘Yours sincerely, David Calderhead.'

‘M.’, as Middelboe was referred to, was common practice at the time, as the initial of his surname denoted his status. Amateur players were always addressed by their family, not given, name.

The time of the letter is key. The year 1919 saw an end to the stripped-down regional football competitions introduced in 1915 in response to the First World War, and witnessed the resumption of the Football League.

With national football back, Chelsea were looking to restore big box-office attractions. The invitation was accepted.

Although his weekday work as a City banker precluded him from many games, Middelboe had been one of the most eminent pre-war players of the English game. At 32, he had lost none of his elegance and intelligence, his raking stride still covering the field like a colossus.

Middelboe answered Calderhead’s distress signal in 1919 and was instrumental in six Chelsea victories up to the end of the year, including two 4-0 wins. It was in the second of those, at home to Preston North End, that the half-back scored the first and only official goal of his career at the Bridge.

It was also the first to be scored for the Pensioners by a footballer from beyond the British Isles. His contribution to the scoresheet was overshadowed by the hat-trick attributed to Jack Cock, a war hero whose signing in the summer was one of the great transfer coups by the club in its early days.

Even in his own book, Middelboe fails to mention this ground-breaking goal. The Daily Mail, while hailing the brilliant “short, fast passing” of Chelsea’s forwards, was underwhelmed by the foreign landmark.

‘The first [goal],’ it noted, ‘which came from Middelboe, but the ball cannoned into the net off Broadhurst, one of the Preston backs.’

Nevertheless, it is clear from other contemporary reports that the pioneering Dane had a huge impact on English football’s appreciation of foreign talent.

‘The best thing of all was that the players liked me,’ wrote Middelboe in his autobiography. ‘Which they showed me at Christmas 1919 by presenting me with a silver cigarette case with the inscription: “From the players to Nils Middelboe – One of the Best.”

‘I have always considered this case my dearest trophy in sport.’

Middelboe was an extremely talented defender whose reading of the game and his ability to carry the ball out of defence were years ahead of his time.

Undoubtedly 'The Great Dane’, as he was known, would have played more games for Chelsea but for his work commitments. Indeed, just 12 of his Chelsea appearances came in games outside London as he was often unable to travel north with the rest of the team on Friday afternoons.

Even after Middelboe’s retirement and his return to Denmark in 1936, he remained a great friend of the club up until the time of his death in September 1976.

One such involvement following his departure from Stamford Bridge related to a strange trip to Denmark ahead of the final game of the 1950/51 season, which we needed to win to stay up. Club historian Rick Glanvill discusses that unusual tour in our matchday programme for the recent game against Copenhagen, which you can buy here.