Whenever he went to church, Alfredo di Stefano, Real Madrid's unbending patriarch, used to offer a prayer for the fitness of one of his club's players. It was not Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo or even Luis Figo, but a man who never wore the mantle of a galactico: Claude Makelele.
Claude Makelele
Claude Makelele: his efforts have transformed Chelsea's midfield
If Jose Mourinho ever prayed for the man from Kinshasa, it, like most things the Chelsea manager has asked for, has been granted. At the age of 32, Makelele has played in all but two of Chelsea's Premiership fixtures and has needed neither rest nor to be part of any squad rotation system.
To the Juventus coach, Fabio Capello, he was the one player Chelsea could not have done without. Mourinho called him the most underrated performer in English football and as the hosannas have been handed to Frank Lampard and John Terry, he may have a point but then courting attention was never part of Makelele's style.
As Steve McManaman, his team-mate for three years at Real Madrid, recalled, to the average fan in the Bernabeu Makelele was almost invisible. "From day one it was obvious to the players he was a crucial feature of the team but because he doesn't score 20 goals or do anything visibly fantastic, like beat six men, pass, collect and score, he'll never get the credit he deserves," he said.
''When he moved to Chelsea in September 2003 people said, 'He's invisible, he doesn't do anything', but Frank Lampard had a fantastic season and a lot of that was to do with Claude winning the ball and passing it neatly to him. He's an unfussy, horrible-to-play-against engine-room player. When we trained his reading of the game was so good you couldn't get past him. His role is to break things up, he is very, very appreciated by the players and it's impossible to overstate his importance."
While it was unquestioned at Ciudad Deportiva, the club's training ground, his importance was mostly overlooked in the Bernabeu's boardroom. To the club president, Florentino Perez, Makelele was, to borrow Eric Cantona's phrase, a mere water carrier. His salary of around £14,000 a week was less than a fifth of the galacticos he supplied and when in the summer of 2003 Makelele threatened to go on strike unless his salary was increased - tactics he had used at Celta Vigo - he was sold to Chelsea for what seemed a phenomenal sum for a 30-year-old of £16.6 million.
And yet it was Real Madrid who bore the greatest cost. It had escaped Perez's notice that Makelele had been injured for the defeat to Juventus in the European Cup semi-final in 2003 that spelled the end of Vicente del Bosque's managerial regime. Without him to shore up a midfield overburdened with attackers, Del Bosque's successor, Carlos Queiroz, was left without any protection. Queiroz's solution of moving David Beckham into the centre of the pitch imploded in the spring of 2004.
''I don't regret a thing," reflected Makelele, who found his first months in London hard because of the language barrier. "I took the decision for my financial future and my health. I am not an egotist but a moment came when I had to be because other people were only thinking of themselves and nothing more.
''But it is dangerous when a club pays so much for you because, with this amount, you are not given much time to demonstrate your game." There was, however, less pressure on him at Stamford Bridge than at the Bernabeu when having to replace Fernando Redondo.
''I'd see signs saying: Fernando please come back. But even though I felt I was playing with a Molotov cocktail at my feet, I obliterated everything from my mind. We won La Liga in 2001 and just seemed invincible. We'd pass the ball between ourselves a dozen times and score goals. It was if we had known each other since childhood. We could find one another almost blindfolded."
That he has remained fit and effective at Chelsea may be due as much to his decision to retire from international football than anything else. He missed out on the glory years of French football and by the time he was called up into the 2002 World Cup squad, it was too late. "For that team the victory cycle was finished. It's difficult to reinvent yourself when you have won everything." For the other Blues, Makelele is discovering that the winning has only just begun.
From the Daily Telegraph
Claude Makelele: his efforts have transformed Chelsea's midfield
If Jose Mourinho ever prayed for the man from Kinshasa, it, like most things the Chelsea manager has asked for, has been granted. At the age of 32, Makelele has played in all but two of Chelsea's Premiership fixtures and has needed neither rest nor to be part of any squad rotation system.
To the Juventus coach, Fabio Capello, he was the one player Chelsea could not have done without. Mourinho called him the most underrated performer in English football and as the hosannas have been handed to Frank Lampard and John Terry, he may have a point but then courting attention was never part of Makelele's style.
As Steve McManaman, his team-mate for three years at Real Madrid, recalled, to the average fan in the Bernabeu Makelele was almost invisible. "From day one it was obvious to the players he was a crucial feature of the team but because he doesn't score 20 goals or do anything visibly fantastic, like beat six men, pass, collect and score, he'll never get the credit he deserves," he said.
''When he moved to Chelsea in September 2003 people said, 'He's invisible, he doesn't do anything', but Frank Lampard had a fantastic season and a lot of that was to do with Claude winning the ball and passing it neatly to him. He's an unfussy, horrible-to-play-against engine-room player. When we trained his reading of the game was so good you couldn't get past him. His role is to break things up, he is very, very appreciated by the players and it's impossible to overstate his importance."
While it was unquestioned at Ciudad Deportiva, the club's training ground, his importance was mostly overlooked in the Bernabeu's boardroom. To the club president, Florentino Perez, Makelele was, to borrow Eric Cantona's phrase, a mere water carrier. His salary of around £14,000 a week was less than a fifth of the galacticos he supplied and when in the summer of 2003 Makelele threatened to go on strike unless his salary was increased - tactics he had used at Celta Vigo - he was sold to Chelsea for what seemed a phenomenal sum for a 30-year-old of £16.6 million.
And yet it was Real Madrid who bore the greatest cost. It had escaped Perez's notice that Makelele had been injured for the defeat to Juventus in the European Cup semi-final in 2003 that spelled the end of Vicente del Bosque's managerial regime. Without him to shore up a midfield overburdened with attackers, Del Bosque's successor, Carlos Queiroz, was left without any protection. Queiroz's solution of moving David Beckham into the centre of the pitch imploded in the spring of 2004.
''I don't regret a thing," reflected Makelele, who found his first months in London hard because of the language barrier. "I took the decision for my financial future and my health. I am not an egotist but a moment came when I had to be because other people were only thinking of themselves and nothing more.
''But it is dangerous when a club pays so much for you because, with this amount, you are not given much time to demonstrate your game." There was, however, less pressure on him at Stamford Bridge than at the Bernabeu when having to replace Fernando Redondo.
''I'd see signs saying: Fernando please come back. But even though I felt I was playing with a Molotov cocktail at my feet, I obliterated everything from my mind. We won La Liga in 2001 and just seemed invincible. We'd pass the ball between ourselves a dozen times and score goals. It was if we had known each other since childhood. We could find one another almost blindfolded."
That he has remained fit and effective at Chelsea may be due as much to his decision to retire from international football than anything else. He missed out on the glory years of French football and by the time he was called up into the 2002 World Cup squad, it was too late. "For that team the victory cycle was finished. It's difficult to reinvent yourself when you have won everything." For the other Blues, Makelele is discovering that the winning has only just begun.
From the Daily Telegraph
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would love to see him at Juve...
Stop it FFS