Former Barcelona Star Ronaldinho Gaucho retired from football with a history of his play station’s marking tricks.
But did you know that there is a Star player who had threatened to break his legs?
ell, Former Chelsea FC star Claude Makelele has revealed he threatened to break Ronaldinho’s legs during a Chelsea vs Barcelona clash.
Makelele and Ronaldinho went head-to-head six times in Champions League ties between the Blues and the Catalan giants.
In those fixtures, which all came in either 2005 or 2006, the two sides both won two, lost two and drew two – with Chelsea progressing from the round of 16 in 2005, Barca from the same stage a year later before both went through Group A the following season.
Brazilian wizard Ronaldinho managed to find the net three times across the series of matches – including a brace in a 4-2 defeat at Stamford Bridge.
The notoriously tricky Samba King wound France international Makelele up though for his style of beating the tough tackling midfielder.
Speaking to Gallas on RMC Sports Makelele admitted what he told Ronaldinho: “I would rather you come at me and dribble past me properly.
“But with all your PlayStation tricks, I’m going to put you in hospital! What did he do? He gave me the ball and apologised.”
Makelele played 217 times for the Blues between 2003 and 2008 and won the Premier League twice under Jose Mourinho’s stewardship.
The blueprint for every defensive midfielder that followed, Makelele also picked up a World Cup runners-up medal.
During his time for his national team, Makelele played alongside the legendary Zinedine Zidane – and the ex Paris-Saint Germain man has explained the differences between Zidane and Ronaldinho.
“Zidane was an artist, but every move he made was to add something to the attack or to advance,” Makelele said.
“He took a beating. In that context, you can’t say anything. With Ronaldinho, it’s the same thing, in this context, you can’t say anything. But at some point, he started to go too far.”