Former Chelsea star Michael Ballack has been full of praise for one of his former teammates at Stamford Bridge.
He told ‘Football’s Greatest’ that he believes one of the best players he ever played with is perhaps one supporters may not expect.
Ballack was a highly successful player himself during his career, however enjoyed a very strong spell at Chelsea in particular.
He won near enough everything that was on offer domestically in West London, and featured alongside club legend Frank Lampard for a large portion of that time.
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Ballack praises Makelele
However, he has been full of praise for another player he featured alongside in the form of Claude Makelele.
He said: “A guy who I played with was Makelele at Chelsea. A very smart guy with such great football intelligence. Funny guy, was a pleasure to play with him because it was easy to play with him.
“You expect good positioning, he reads the game really, really well. Unselfish player, he always saw the better opponent, and you could expect good balls and a simple game.
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“I loved playing with Makelele because as I described – great player.”
Makelele underrated as people ‘didn’t notice him’
Makelele lived his career largely being underrated, with former Real Madrid star Fernando Hierro believing his old side didn’t rate him highly enough because people ‘didn’t notice him’.
It is clear the impact he has already had on a number of current Chelsea players too. Club-record signing Moises Caicedo has stated he is one of the two club legends who inspired him.
The Frenchman has experience working at the club too, and may have had an impact on the current position of one of their first team stars.
He stated recently that it was he who was responsible for Trevoh Chalobah converting from a midfielder to a defender on a more regular basis.
Chelsea have had a number of impressive players in this role before, with N’golo Kante also being praised for his performances at Stamford Bridge. It remains to be seen whether Caicedo can add his name to this list.
