Football Explained

The Makélélé role

MakeleleIntroduced to boost flagging Chelsea attendances in the middle of the 00s, the Makélélé role is a name given to the member of the side whose job it is to lighten the mood of the fans and his team mates by performing practical jokes and maintaining and overseeing top-level banter.

The phrase was coined when John Terry hilariously punched a woman in a hotel bar in 2004. This “smack-a-lady” role improved team spirit no end, but when a drunken Damien Duff attempted to text an account of the event to Glen Johnson he could only type “JT’ s mack a layly!!!11″, and a new phrase was coined.

The role was maintained by Terry for many years at club and international level, but he was stripped of the title in 2010 when allegations about his private life suggested that he treated women with respect, and Fabio Capello and Guus Hiddink decided he was no longer the appropriate choice.

John Obi Mikel took over the Makélélé role at Chelsea, by which times the club’s success had made the position popular around the world, with top jokers Jimmy Bullard, Javier Mascherano and Joey Barton excelling in the role at other clubs.

Claude Makélélé is often credited as making the “role his own” at Chelsea, but this erroneous suggestion is a result of widespread confusion about the origin of the name.

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