Chelsea

Chelsea signed him from the Reading youth team after his mother had written to manager Ted Drake, requesting that he give her son a trial. Whilst a Chelsea junior, Bonetti made five appearances for Croydon Amateurs in the Surrey Senior League thanks to youth team coach Albert Tennant who was also coaching Croydon at that time.^[9] He made his first team debut in 1960, and a few weeks later helped the Chelsea youth team win the FA Youth Cup. From the 1960–61 season onward he was Chelsea's first-choice goalkeeper, a position he held more-or-less constantly for the next nineteen years.

Chelsea were relegated in Bonetti's second full season, which saw the appointment of Tommy Docherty as manager. Bonetti emerged as a key figure in a talented young team which included Bobby Tambling, Terry Venables, John Hollins and Barry Bridges.^[10] The team went into the penultimate match of the season needing to beat promotion rivals Sunderland to have a chance of going up. Chelsea won 1–0, with Bonetti making a brilliant last minute save to deny George Mulhall and maintain his team's promotion chances; a 7–0 win over Portsmouth secured instant promotion back to the First Division.^[11]

Bonetti (no. 1) playing for Chelsea in 1966

The new Chelsea team challenged for honours during the 1960s, with Bonetti a key figure throughout, although more often than not the team narrowly missed out. The club won the League Cup in 1965 with a 3–2 aggregate victory over Leicester City. Leicester put Chelsea under heavy pressure in the second leg at Filbert Street, but an inspired performance from Bonetti helped secure a 0–0 draw, and thus the trophy for his team.^[10] For most of that season Chelsea were on course to add both the league title and the FA Cup, but ultimately missed out. They were beaten by Liverpool in the FA Cup;^[10] meanwhile, their title challenge ended with a few matches left, following a bust-up between Docherty and several of his first-team players (though not Bonetti). The disunity behind the scenes meant that a much-weakened team was fielded in a key match against Burnley, in which Bonetti conceded six goals.^[12]

Bonetti played in every match of Chelsea's Inter-Cities Fairs Cup run the following season, putting in a series of impressive displays against the likes of Roma, A.C. Milan and Barcelona, though the team was eventually knocked out in the semi-final, as they were in the FA Cup for the second consecutive year. The signing of Alex Stepney at the end of that season briefly threatened his position as Chelsea's first-choice goalkeeper, and he considered putting in a transfer request, but Stepney ultimately made only one appearance for the club and was sold to Manchester United a few months later. Chelsea eventually reached an FA Cup final in 1967, where they faced Tottenham Hotspur, but the team got outplayed on the day and Bonetti could do little to stop Spurs winning 2–1.^[13]

That was the closest he came to winning another trophy with Chelsea until 1970, by which time Docherty had been succeeded by Dave Sexton. In 1970, Chelsea again reached the FA Cup final and this time faced reigning league champions Leeds United. Over the two fiercely contested matches, Bonetti had what was perhaps the finest moment of his playing career. Chelsea were outplayed for large spells in the first final at Wembley Stadium and he made a series of crucial saves to help them emerge with a 2–2 draw. Shortly into the replay at Old Trafford, his left knee was badly injured after a challenge from Leeds' Mick Jones. He returned to the field after treatment, but was effectively playing on one leg for the rest of the match and was powerless to stop Jones scoring the opener a few minutes later. In spite of the injury, and being targeted by the Leeds forwards, he made crucial saves throughout the match, denying both Peter Lorimer and Terry Cooper, and resisted more pressure from Leeds after Chelsea had taken the lead in extra time to help secure a 2–1 win. Such were Bonetti's performances that season, he was voted runner-up in the FWA Footballer of the Year awards.^[14]

A year later, the team added the European Cup Winners' Cup after another replayed win in the final, this time over Spanish giants Real Madrid in Athens. Chelsea took a 2–0 lead in the replay, but Real dominated for much of the second half and it was another inspired performance from Bonetti that helped them hold on for a 2–1 win.^[15]

That was his last trophy with the club, although they narrowly missed out on more in the following years, losing in the 1972 League Cup final to Stoke City and in the semi-final of the same competition to Norwich City a year later.^[10] Financial and disciplinary problems within the club prevented them from building on their success.^[16]

St Louis Stars

Bonetti left on a free transfer in 1975, joining the St. Louis Stars of the North American Soccer League. That year, he made 21 appearances for the team and helped them top the Central Division that summer and reach the play-off semi-final.

Return to Chelsea

He then returned to Chelsea, where his experience proved invaluable in helping new manager Eddie McCreadie's young team gain promotion in 1976–77. Two years later, in May 1979, he played his final appearance for Chelsea, a 1–1 draw with Arsenal, having made a total of 729 appearances for the club in nineteen years – only Ron Harris has made more – and kept over 200 clean sheets. He conceded one goal or less in two-thirds of his appearances for Chelsea.