Chelsea tried to sign Zidane and Ronaldo to join world class midfielder | OneFootball

It’s easy to forget now, but the signing of Claude Makelele was a huge moment for Chelsea.

He was not a household name at that point, as the bigger names of the “Galacticos” of Madrid stole the headlines, but it didn’t take him long in the Premier League to show everyone just how good he was.

The defensive midfielder has told a really interesting story this week of how he ended up at Stamford Bridge -and how it was all down to Madrid’s shabby treatment of him.

How Chelsea ended up signing world class midfielder

“At the start of the season, the Real Madrid president came up to me and said how happy he was with me and that he’d give me a bonus… We went on a pre-season tour to Asia and, once we got back, I asked the president about my bonus and he said the club didn’t have any money because they’d just signed David Beckham,” the midfielder explained in quotes pied up by GhanaSoccernet.

“I understood but then, about two weeks later, the sporting director came and spoke to me and basically told me that there still wasn’t any money to pay me the bonus. He said I’d stay but without any bonus. It was a bit of a shock and I was disappointed but I’m not one who kicks up a fuss and says too much.”

Makelele then had had enough, and was happy to move to Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea pushed for Ronaldo and Zidane to join Makelele

“I met Roman Abramovich and he gave me proper money for my future. I think for him it was exciting to be buying a player from Real Madrid – that didn’t happen very often. There was a very good feeling when I spoke to him that he wanted me. Honestly, I don’t think he really cared what it cost he just wanted me to be a Chelsea player,” the World Cup winner explained.

“He was very passionate about winning. He wanted the best players in his team and would pay whatever it required. He thought Ronaldo or Zinedine Zidane could come and I told him ‘football isn’t like this!’ He made it a club everyone wanted to join. Obviously the money was good, but we were being successful and players wanted to be part of it.”