Black History Month: The Makélélé Role

Photo by Alain Gadoffre / Onze / Icon Sport via Getty ImagesIf you were putting a team together, one of the key pieces would be a defensive midfielder. Any manager who was smart would get a defensive midfielder that played with strength, incredible vision, and could be the quarterback of both the defense and the offense. In short, you would need someone like Claude Makélélé.

Claude Makélélé, born in Kinshasa, Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo), moved to the suburbs outside Paris, France when he was 4 years old. His father was an international player for Zaire, but Makélélé’s game was developed on those Parisian streets. He played well enough to sign for U.S. Melun’s academy…