Biography

A specialist player, considered by many the world's best at executing the midfield anchor role.

With Spanish League Championship and Champions League medals as evidence of this, Claude was signed from Real Madrid for £13.9 million in the summer of the Abramovich revolution and was declared by then manager Claudio Ranieri the final piece in the jigsaw. 

Claude started as he meant to go on, gliding around in front of the defence, disrupting the opposition and distributing the ball with care. He remained Frank Lampard's near-permanent partner in the centre and was our fourth most used player in his first season at The Bridge.

Short in height but high in stamina, he upped this to become joint second appearance maker next Premiership season and at the peak of his form was a true hero of Chelsea's title win.

When the powers that be at the Bernabeu failed to value their unsung hero highly enough, there were groans aplenty from Madrid's biggest stars but they could not prevent Claude embarking on a new challenge in England.

In September 2004 he brought the curtain down on an international career that had won 35 caps in order to focus entirely on bringing trophies to Chelsea. He succeed in that quest and provides an experienced head in an otherwise young midfield.

Player Info

Date of Birth: 18 Feb 1973

Height: 5 7

Signed: 31 Aug 2003

Previous clubs: Real Madrid (£16,600,000)