The World Needs More Makélélé

April 28th, 2008 | by: Laurie |

I don’t have a lot of time today, but I feel a need to post this just to get that Dhorasoo photo off the top of the page. (Hey, it seemed like a good idea at the time.)

Interesting career retrospective of one of our resident old guys, Claude Makélélé, over on the FIFA.com site. How can you not love a footballing article that begins:

As Pierre Corneille put it: “In souls nobly born, valour does not depend upon age.”

I’ll bet this writer has boxes and boxes of poetry stashed in the back of his closet. Not that this is a bad thing. The world needs more poets.

(I personally find that limericks stretch me to the limit. So I respect poets. And now that I have somehow managed to link “limerick” and “Makélélé” in my brain, I’m feeling a need to write a limerick dedicated to our Claude. Stay tuned. This is one of many services we’ll offer in the run-up to Euros.)

But I digress. Makélélé. (If you’re English, you take away the accent marks and kind of rhyme it with “Ukelele.”) The article has a lot of good quotes, but this is my favorite:

“Precision is the most important thing for the position I play in,” explains the man himself. “You have to be physical, quick and have good technique. If you lose the ball, it can have irreversible consequences. You have to be very precise in your positioning. There are no more No10s – the defensive midfielder has to know how to do everything.”

Pretty much sums up the man behind the Makélélé role, doesn’t it? Based on our Claude’s recent performances (seriously, the man pretty much defines the word “consistent”), I’m guessing we’ll see a lot more of him this summer.

Not bad for an old guy.

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Jean-Michel

Always has a smile on his face even when he’s fighting for the ball. He makes it look so easy at times you forget he’s a vieux. You gotta love this guy for many things including the patience he’s shown throughout the years. Really liked the article, thanks Laurie.
Doumé

Yes, it seems when you look at many of the great goals scored by the team, somehow if you rewind 10-15 seconds, he’s in the thick of the action.
http://www.bamor.net/summer-of-love-poet-9577 summer of love poet

[...] The World Needs solon Makll [...]
sandrahn

Can’t say I’m happy about the world needing more Makeleles. I love the guy but the rise of his type of player coincides with the decline of my favorite position in the sport: the #10. The Zidanes and Riquelmes of this world are a dying breed as anti-football increasingly dominates all int’l tournaments, both club and country (that’s how Man United got into the CL final). This isn’t to slate Claude, I’ve always admired him for his excellence as a DM and I think his pairing with Vieira at the 2006 wc was the tournament’s best midfield partnership. But I can’t say that I celebrate the increased significance of a role that has helped so much to suffocate adventure, creativity, courage and art in the game.