In 2019, the legendary Frenchman recalled one of the most special episodes of his football career – and no one has probably paid any attention to it.
Actually, Makelele forced Ronaldinho Gaucho to apologise to him right during the Champions League knockout clash between Chelsea and Barcelona.
“At one point, Ronaldinho crossed the line,” Makelele recalled in an interview with RMC Sport.
“I went over to him and said: ‘Kiddo, I’d rather you show good manners in dribbling against me because with all of your PlayStation tricks… I’ll send you to the hospital.’
“What did Ronaldinho say? He gave me the ball and apologised,” Claude concluded.
This, however, didn’t somehow help the Blues get past the Catalans. On February 22, 2006, Barcelona defeated Chelsea at Stamford Bridge 1-2 and wrapped things up with a home draw two weeks after. Interestingly, Ronaldinho was the one to score Barca’s only goal at Camp Nou on that day.
Claude Makelele was awesome, no doubt about that.