Football Changing Era: The Departure of Claude Makélélé and the Rise of the Galacticos

This week, Eurosport makes you relive the summer when football changed era. 2003 marked a turning point for the Galactics of Real Madrid, for the reborn FC Barcelona of a certain Ronaldinho, for the newly rich Chelsea or for the transfer of a prodigy, Cristiano Ronaldo. This Thursday, fourth episode of our series with the departure of Claude Makélélé to Real Madrid.

This is the story of a bon mot coming from the mouth of a silent man. It’s a legendary sentence, the true existence of which is doubted but which ended up becoming the official version by dint of being repeated and amplified. It’s a prophecy that came from Zinédine Zidane in August 2003, after a summer when Real Madrid signed David Beckham but lost Claude Makélélé. “Why put a new gold coat on the Bentley when we lost the engine?”. As on the pitch, Zidane saw everything before anyone else: Makélélé gone, the Galacticos are dead. The rest of the story will prove him right.

The beginning of this begins in Brittany. First in Brest where the young Makélélé started his professional career as a… right midfielder. Bad luck, Brest Armorique FC goes bankrupt but the young Claude interests the world, from Monaco to Montpellier via Auxerre. It is finally FC Nantes who recovers the kid, after an assiduous courting of the late Robert Budzynski. The offensive style of the Canaries sticks with the idea he has of football, he is the son of a professional player in Zaire. Percussion, dribbling, a good burst of speed, the Makélélé of yesteryear has nothing to do with its legend.

“When I was a kid, I played striker and from the age of 17, I started playing behind the striker, a bit like my father who was a playmaker, will explain Makélélé to Four Four Two in 2020. When I broke through in Nantes, I played as a winger even if I sometimes went down in the middle”. It is in this position that he will become a world reference, far from Nantes and France.

I was doing a number of round trips…

His career takes him to Marseille. Okay. So comes the time to try your luck abroad. 1.74m but a big heart like that and physical predispositions: Celta Vigo bet on him in 1998. “El Monstruo” was born. Aleksandr Mostovoy, Valeriy Karpin, Tomás Hervás, Haim Revivo: the workforce is full of much more creative profiles than Makélélé, but coach Victor Fernandez has a very specific idea for the Frenchman. In his environment shines Mazinho, Brazilian world champion in 1994 and father of Thiago Alcantara and Rafinha. At 32, he looks like the perfect tutor to guide the 25-year-old Frenchman into his new position.

“It was from there that I started playing midfield, we already had enough attacking players and I started to love this position, confirms Makélélé. I realized that I was even more involved in the game, that I could lead the team because the ball necessarily passed in my zone. I played with Mazinho, I learned a lot from him, I often stayed after training to listen to his advice. He taught me to always be well placed, I learned so much and I improved day by day. During the matches, we exchanged the offensive and defensive tasks but since I was younger, it was mainly up to me. ‘move forward. I was doing a number of back and forths…’.

Claude Makélélé in the jersey of Celta Vigo in March 2000

Credit: Getty Images

Spain quickly fell under the spell of this marathon runner, an unparalleled ball scraper and an exceptional tactical intelligence. In the country, however, Makélélé does not yet have the same reputation. Between July 1995, the date of his first selection, and October 2000, he only appeared twice in the France group, forgotten for the World Cup and the Euro, eclipsed by the crazy French generation, from Didier Deschamps to Patrick Vieira passing by Emmanuel Petit or Christian Karembeu. “For two years, no one spoke of me in France and yet it was then that I became more sure of myself, that I reached my current maturity”, he recalls in 2001 .

Stoned car and crime of lèse-majesté

Position still uncertain, relative media exposure, sacred monsters impossible to unbolt: all this will change in the summer of 2000, a real turning point in Makélélé’s career. Marc Roger, his truculent agent, felt it. The Madrid puzzle has lost an essential piece with the departure of the elegant Fernando Redondo, flown to AC Milan. A place will become available, Roger will do everything to ensure that his colt occupies it. Real are unwilling to pay more than 15 million, Celta are demanding double that. His agent then pushes for a clash and an episode will put water on the fire: the Frenchman’s car is targeted by supporters, recording a break that Vigo did not want. It’s actually a scam.

“To try to force Vigo to transfer Claude under conditions that do not put off other clubs, I went to file a complaint at a local police station saying that Celta supporters had threatened the player and vandalized his car… he does so in his book Transfers. Except that the pebbles, it was I who had thrown them at the windshield… With the consent of the person concerned, of course!”. A version denied by Makélélé years later but which benefits everyone: the Frenchman lands in Madrid and definitely changes galaxy.

Despite the initial reluctance of Florentino Pérez, just elected president but already attracted by the light, as evidenced by the incredible transfer of Luis Figo, Vincente Del Bosque insists on having the Frenchman. The beginnings are not idyllic. For Real Madrid purists, replacing the divine Redondo with the discreet Makélélé is heresy.

“You have to imagine that, he retraced with AS recently. I came to replace Redondo who was a God for Madrid. It was a complicated period. Frankly, when Bernabéu whistles at you, you liquefy”. However, Del Bosque quickly understood that he needed Makélélé, an increasingly essential point of balance as Madrid’s squad fills with attacking stars.

“The most important but the least appreciated”

After Figo, Zidane and Ronaldo will arrive to complete the Galactic squad but the Frenchman continues to grow in importance. “He’s the second coach”, slips the Madrid coach about him while Makélélé, true to his words passed down to posterity, gains in leadership and represents the first warrior of the Merengues. “He’s the number one in Spain,” ends up admitting Roger Lemerre who makes him a regular member of the Blues.

From his first season at the club, Real won a La Liga which had been avoiding him for four seasons, an eternity at the club. But 2002 is perhaps the most beautiful symbol of these victorious Galacticos: Zidane and Figo take care of the aesthetics, Ronaldo and Raul fill in the stats sheets and Makélélé fills all the holes. “In Madrid, I focused on the role of defensive midfielder since I almost never needed to venture into the opposition part of the field, he laughed at Four Two. We had the best attacking players in the world, they could score a ton of goals. Go ahead? What for?

Makelele with Guti, Zidane and Figo

Credit: AFP

But the drama of Makélélé lies in this paradox: essential in the eyes of connoisseurs, limited to that of glitter lovers, as Steve McManaman summed it up so well: “it’s the most important but the least appreciated in club circles”. Florentino Pérez fits the description well. The Madrid president has never been a fan of the Frenchman. Not technical enough, not flashy enough. In the summer of 2003, an unexpected breakup finally came to light.

The previous months, the Madrid management promised him an extension accompanied by a logical salary increase. But the arrival of Beckham will change everything. Makélélé does not want to leave but his honor is touched. “It was not a question of money, it was just the idea of ​​being valued, he traced back to AS. At one point, they told me ‘we will give you a little more’ money’. It wasn’t much. But when it came time, they ended up saying to me ‘no, no, no, we’re out of money’. They had bought Beckham with a certain salary “.

The arm wrestling scandal, twenty years before

In reality, in Madrid no one cared as the claims of the Makélélé clan seemed unrealistic – an alignment with the stars of the dressing room, according to Madrid media at the time. Little Claude is not going to make waves, this is the state of mind of an institution which is moving up a gear at the world level but not necessarily at the sporting level in this summer of 2003.

“When I reminded them of their first offer, they told me that I should be happy to play for Real, continued the player with Four Four Two. Almost as if he was telling me that I should be happy to play for free It was over for me, I wanted to leave.” Real was right: little Claude is not going to make waves. It will create a tsunami with as yet unsuspected consequences in the Spanish capital.

August 2003: Claude Makélélé in training with David Beckham and Raul, an image that will not last

Credit: Getty Images

In 2023, twenty years before the practice is democratized everywhere, Makélélé goes to arm wrestling. The French skips training, medical certificate in support, and his agent discusses with the new rich Europeans, Chelsea. On August 15, however, the venerable Real imposes its law revealing that the Blues are going to withdraw from an explosive file because it is political.

“Chelsea felt used because they were told that Real Madrid intended to sell Claude Makélélé, explains sporting director Jorge Valdano to Cadena Ser. There is nothing further from reality and So firstly Chelsea asked for forgiveness, and secondly they withdrew their intention to hold a meeting with us, not on Monday or later I hope We know that clubs cannot contact players who have contracts in force: Makélélé is under contract until 2006, and therefore his professional situation is very clear”. The development is crystal clear but the tricolor clan is stubborn.

Pérez’s tackle

“At the beginning, few clubs came forward because no one thought I could really leave Real, explained Makélélé again. But when I started to push, a lot of teams arrived. I spoke to the directors of the club of these interests but they explained that they had received nothing. They still thought that I was going to accept the situation and not speak to anyone. When they understood that the problem was serious, they wanted to react but it was too late” .

The case dragged on but at the end of the summer, Real finally gave in. After all, recovering almost 20 million euros for a 30-year-old midfielder could help recruit another defender. Final decider, Pérez wants to be as reassuring for his Real as he is brittle for his now ex-player. “We will not miss Makélélé, asserts the Madrid president. His technique was average, he lacked speed and talent to erase opponents and 90% of his passes were directed towards the back or the sides”. Visionary. Without its regulator, Real Madrid won’t win any major title for… four years. The Galactics are dead, sportingly speaking.

At Chelsea, Claudio Ranieri is delighted to welcome such a player, his “new battery”, to launch the new era of the Blues, watered by the millions of Roman Abramovich. The Telegraph title then ironically “Makélélé is the new battery of the Rolex of Chelsea”. The English daily did not miss the great upheaval of the summer on the other side of the Channel: money has definitely taken over…

To be continued on Friday: Episode 5 dedicated to the Chelsea revolution with Roman Abramovich
2023-08-02 21:47:00
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