The 1997 FA Cup Final took place on May 17 1997 at Wembley Stadium and was won by Chelsea with a 2–0 victory over Middlesborough. Chelsea were attempting to win their first FA Cup for 27 years, while Middlesborough were contesting their first ever final.

Chelsea took to the field on the back of something of a renaissance under Dutch manager Ruud Gullit, having recorded their best league finish for a decade. Chelsea's victory meant that Gullit was the first foreign and the first non-white manager to win a major trophy with an English club.

Following that FA Cup win, Chelsea have played in Europe ever since. This was a significant period in Chelsea's history, a resurgence in fortune which put them on the football radar.

The Chelsea winning team which took to the field on that fateful day was:

Manager: Ruud Gullit

GK 30 Frode Grodås

CB 6 Steve Clarke CB 5 Frank Leboeuf CB 20 Frank Sinclair

RWB 2 Dan Petrescu LWB 17 Scott Minto

CM 11 Dennis Wise CM 24 Eddie Newton

CM 16 Roberto Di Matteo

CF 10 Mark Hughes CF 25 Gianfranco Zola

Substitutes:

GK 13 Kevin Hitchcock

DF 8 Andy Myers FW

9 Gianluca Vialli

But where are they now?

Ruud Gullit has been a largely unsuccessful coach, adding further evidence to the argument that highly talented players rarely succeed in making a successful transition into football management.

His reputation as a manager was cemented at Chelsea but his formula for success could not be replicated elsewhere. He is currently a soccer analyst on Sky Sports.

Frode Grodås tried management back in Norway but did not get very far with it. He is now a goalkeeping coach at Lillestrøm SK, a club managed by former Blackburn and Man Utd defender Henning Berg.

Steve Clarke stayed at Chelsea and went on to become an integral part of the Jose Mourinho era as assistant manager. Has now moved on to form a double act with Gianfranco Zola at West Ham United.

Frank Leboeuf spent some time back in France with Marseille and Qatar with Al Saad before calling it quits.

He can now be found now developing a new career as an actor in Hollywood, following in the footsteps of Vinnie Jones. Apart from that, he still plays seven-a-side soccer with Hollywood United, a celebrity team in LA. He has appeared in one movie to date—Taking Sides.

Frank Sinclair is still plying his trade in the lower leagues of English football. He is now 37 years old and still going strong. He plays League Two football for Wycombe Wanderers, on loan from Lincoln City.

Dan Petrescu was very popular with the Chelsea fans during his time there. He is now a manager back in Romania with solid managerial credentials. I don't think we will see him in the Premier League anytime soon, however, he could be in line for a return to his old club, Steaua Bucharest.

Scott Minto is now giving something back to his local community, spending one day a week ferrying passengers to and from the Rotherham hospice as a voluntary driver.

Minto also regularly reports from live football games for Sky Sports, and occasionally makes appearances commenting on games from the studio for Soccer Saturday. He also appears on talkSPORT's Evening Kick-Off show from time to time as co-presenter, and has worked as a pundit for BBC London 94.9's live football commentaries.

Needless to say, we all know about Dennis Wise and the circus that is Newcastle United.

Having made a bit of a name for himself as a manager, he tried to cut his teeth as a more influential boardroom type figure, as Newcastle's Director of Football. The fans and Kevin Keegan didn't like it, Dennis the Menace was eventually hounded out of Tyneside. Nevertheless as a manager, he was rather decent, with 92 wins out of 205 games for a win percentage of 46.3%.

Roberto Di Matteo also tried his luck at management. He took over the reins at MK Dons when Paul Ince left to take charge of Blackburn Rovers. Has been successful as manager (win percentage of 55%) and is looking likely to take MK Dons into the Football League Championship next season.

Eddie Newton retired from competitive football due to a knee injury, converted to Islam and married his Turkish/Swedish wife Zeliha Newton in 2003.

He is a business director of New Vision Sports Ltd, which offers grass roots sports for children, after school clubs, personal training, and holiday schemes.

Newton also hosted Football Icon one and two alongside Jamie Redknapp. On July 2 2008 he was appointed assistant manager to Roberto Di Matteo at MK Dons. Prior to that, he was the Under-16 youth team coach at Chelsea.

Mark Hughes' career as a manager has been well-documented. After success as Wales manager, he went on to achieve great progress at Blackburn Rovers, showing an eye for bargains—as proven by the acquisition of Roque Santa Cruz.

He could not resist a move to Manchester City and is now trying to preside over very exciting and high pressure times in the blue half of Manchester. May not survive the trials and tribulations at City as his motives may never be trusted, having played for the Red Devils.

Gianfranco Zola left Chelsea for the Italian life with Cagliari. He then retired, became a pundit and in 2006, teamed up with Pierluigi Casiraghi to coach the Italian Under-21s. We all know that he has transformed West Ham this season as part of a double act with fellow former Chelsea teammate, Steve Clarke.

Kevin Hitchcock is currently a goalkeeping coach at Manchester City, having followed ex-team mate, Hughes.

Andy Myers has been completely assimilated into the real world after being laid off by Brentford in 2005.

Since that year, Gianluca Viali was made player-manager of Chelsea and went on to collect a number of trophies as manager.

He actually had a very decent win percentage (53.15%) as manager. Having said that, he could not sustain his impressive managerial career as he faltered at Watford and now works as a football commentator for Sky Italia.

Hmmm, maybe it's just a coincidence, but 12 members of the 15 former Chelsea players are now managers and coaches. I wonder if that's the same statistics to be found in other famous cup winning sides. I Will be looking into that for sure.