His Questions Caused Controversy For Chelsea Captain

But 5 year old sports journalist Oscar takes it all in his little stride

It was a scoop any sports journalist would have been proud of and an admission that John Terry may come to regret, but five year old Oscar Witt is taking it all in his little stride.

The Chiswick school boy was one of nine children who successfully submitted to The Guardian questions they would like to ask their chosen heroes.

“Oscar is an avid Chelsea fan and he chose John Terry as he was captain,” explained his mother Lesley. “The fact that he had recently seen John Terry score in the England vs USA match at Wembley was around the same time we responded to the submission request probably helped.”

Without any concept of the controversy his question would cause, Oscar got the Chelsea Captain to admit Jose Mourinho was the best club manager he had worked with. Terry said, “When Jose was here he was very good, and we won a lot of trophies. And we came close with Avram Grant. Now Scolari's the manager, so because it's too early to say on Scolari, I'm gonna say Mourinho is the best."

“The question stemmed from the fact that he missed Jose, never really liked Grant and Scolari had just arrived so it seemed a natural thing to ask.” Said Oscar’s father Ryan who accompanied him on the visit to Chelsea. “We never thought that John Terry would answer the question or that Chelsea would allow it. To be fair, John Terry gave a very diplomatic response to the question or so it seemed at the time!”

He continued, “We discussed what sort of things he would want to ask John Terry if he ever met him. We talked about the things that were important to Oscar - toys, games, being scared, football - and the questions came out of there. Oscar sometimes sticks his hair up like John Terry so that's where there that one came from.”

Even though he also got to meet Ashley Cole, Jose Bosingwa, Carlo Cudicini, Ricardo Carvalho, Salomon Kalou, Franco Di Santo and Frank Lampard (pictured below), the highlight of the day for Oscar was playing football against John Terry who presented the Chiswick and Bedford Park pupil with a signed Chelsea shirt and a pair of his own football boots.

Ryan said, “We have very little experience with these things so I was quite impressed with the lengths Chelsea and John Terry went to make Oscar feel special (as a parent, anyone that treats my child well is cool in my books!).

"It’s common place to hear about the greedy, money oriented side of football (understandably so) but on this occasion the club and John Terry are to be commended.”

Lesley added, “I was very impressed with Oscar's calmness. He read all his questions and didn't let the situation overwhelm him. Also, I echo Ryan's comments about Chelsea and John Terry. They did a terrific job on the day which far exceeded expectation.”

Oscar’s interview with John Terry can be read in full here

The feature was one of a series of nine which have so far revealed that Simon Cowell would kiss Cheryl Cole given the choice of anyone in the world, Sir David Attenborough is unsure which animal has the stinkiest poo, and Richard Hammond prefers dogs to hamsters.

February 6, 2009