Claudio Makelele was the most important piece of Real Madrid's Galactico puzzle. And letting him go was the biggest mistake in Florentino Perez's presidential career. There is a term in modern football called "The Makelele role", which basically defines the role of Destroyer midfielder in midfield. This role was named after Claudio Makelele. At his time this french midfield wrecked havoc on this part of the pitch. Enough to name a whole role after him. His absence was once a pity for the Galacticos.
Makelele's growing up was in the African continent in Kinshasa, Republic of the Congo. At the age of four, ambitious father Andre Makelele moved to France, Europe's largest African colony. With his son and wife. His father was a footballer, and obviously, the son was following his father's footsteps. At the age of 18, he joined French club Brest's youth system and spent two years there, then he caught the eye of French first division club Nantes. Claudio made his first foray into greatness at Nantes actually. He spent five seasons there enjoying his football to the fullest, taking Nantes to the semi-finals of the Champions League in 1995 in his last season there. Marseille, France's biggest club, were impressed by Claudio's performance and brought him to their club. After one season there, Makelele was sold to Spanish club Celta for business reasons. During his two seasons at Celta, Makelele established himself as one of the best defensive midfielders in the world. In the 1999/00 season. It was Makelele's man of the match performance that saw Celta beat Juventus and Liverpool. Meanwhile, when none of Real's three big names, Figo, Zidane and Raul backed up the defense with trackbacks, there was the need for someone who would give Real a defensive shield to it's back line. Real coach Vincente del Bosque brought Makelele to Real for 14 million euros after a dispute with Vigo.
Makelele spent three seasons at Real. Vincent del Bosque never made a team without Makelele, and the teammates respected him. Makelele won everything in these three seasons except the one Champions League. Perez has never been able to properly rate Makelele, his salary was one-tenth of the team's top players. With two years left in Makelele's contract, Del Bosque was urging Perez to renew his contract, but Perez kept an eye on Beckham. His negligence continued to renew the contract throughout the entire 2002/03 season. Makelele said Perez assured him that his contract would be renewed, that he even shook hands with him after talking about it. But when he went to Thailand for pre-season training, Perez brought Beckham. He asked him what would happen to the promise he had made to him. Perez then said that he was no longer a need for Real. And that h was threatened by general manager Valdano when he took it up to the coach and the coach talked to the superiors about the situation. It was a matter of extreme disrespect. Perez really thought that there would be no harm to Real without Makelele. But Real Madrid couldn't do anything with a full fledge Galactico team without Makelele. The whole dressing room subsequently condemned Perez's move. Legendary captain Fernando Hierro said they all know that Claudio was Real's best player and the most important member of the Galacticos. Zidane defined Makelele as Real's engine.
However, one of Real's wrong was a blessing for English club Chelsea at the time. Claudio Ranieri brought him to London as soon as he got the chance. And expected great things from him. Even though he was sacked after Roman Abramovic came in, Mourinho, the new coach, understood the importance of Makelele. With him and Lampard, along with Essien/Duff, Mourinho formed the most iconic triangle shaped midfielder in English football. The most beautiful time of Claudio's career was spent at Chelsea. Here he explained to Perez his meaning, introduced the world to perfection in the limited area. He won everything except one Champions League in Chelsea shirt.
He is one of the greatest Chelsea legends of the modern era. He is now the youth coach and technical director of Chelsea.
