Executive of the French team at the 2006 World Cup, Claude Makelele lived very badly the defeat of the Blues against Italy in the final.
Like Zinedine Zidane or Lilian Thuram, Claude Makelele had decided to say stop after Euro 2004 in Portugal, explaining wanting to focus on his Chelsea club. But less than a year later, the former Nantessese was back to the Blues alongside Zinedine Zidane and Lilian Thuram.
Questioned on the FIFA site, the native of Kinshasa returned to this sequence which brought him to the final of the 2006 World Cup, lost to penalties against Italy (1-1 AP, 5 tab at 3). “Even if we did not win this cup, we had impact in France, the French people were proud of this team. It was a mix between old and young people, and it was this mix that made it worked well. Because we (Claude Makélélé, Lilian Thuram and Zinedine Zidane), we must not forget that we came back to the rescue ”he explained.
“We were retired. We did not understand why these talented young people could not, he continued. They needed a framework. A framework for discipline and ambition. From the moment they joined our speech, with all the staff, we were able to ride a power crescendo. We have finished, but in the end, it was played out or double. »»
“This is the first time I cried after a defeat”
The reverse facing the transalpine neighbors was obviously difficult to digest for the tricolor midfielder. So much so that he finished crying on the lawn of the Berlin Olympic stadium. “This is the first time I cried after a defeat. Because I knew I was not going to come back “, he blown.
This World Cup in Germany had also been an opportunity for Claude Makelele to play his greatest match with the Blues, the victorious quarter -final against Brazil. “I have lived a lot of big games with my clubs. But this 2006 France-Brazil remains my biggest match, had he told the World. We have just eliminated (3-1) Spain in the round of 16. We gain power. We have no fear. I think it is more Brazilians who fear us than the opposite. We are comfortable. We know each other well between French and Brazilian players. We rub shoulders with a club. The twenty-two players who enter the lawn are indisputable holders in clubs. In the tunnel, we exchange friendly gestures, there is a form of mutual respect, and, at the same time, I think that we have already taken the ascendant on them. We are relaxed, we laugh while advancing in the tunnel. Seeing us like that destabilizes them. We had been like that too against the Spanish. »»
