All sides happy as Makelele leaves Chelsea to join PSG

Published on Monday 21 July 2008 13:08

CLAUDE MAKELELE will end his five-year spell at Chelsea by completing a move to Paris St Germain.

PSG have announced the French midfielder will join them after reaching agreement on terms of the deal with the player and Chelsea.

Makelele was a 16.8million signing by Chelsea from Real Madrid in 2003. The 35-year-old won two league titles during his spell at Stamford Bridge, and helped the club reach last season's Champions League final.

Makelele retired from international football after France's disappointing showing at Euro 2008. A brief statement on the PSG website read: "Charles Villeneuve, president of Paris St Germain, Paul Le Guen, coach of the first team, and Alain Roche, head scout, will have a press conference today.

"They will present midfielder Claude Makelele, who will join Paris St Germain's first team for the 2008/09 season."

A statement on Chelsea's website read: "Everyone at Chelsea would like to take this opportunity to thank Claude for the five years of service he has given to the club. He has been a key part of our trophy success during that time and we wish him well for the future.

"He will always be welcomed back to Stamford Bridge in the future either as a player or as a friend of the club."

Meanwhile, Petr Cech has signed a new five-year contract with the Blues.

The deal, which keeps the 26-year-old goalkeeper at Stamford Bridge until 2013, was completed late last week but announced as the team touched down today in Guangzhou, China, for the pre-season tour of Asia.

The Czech internationalist arrived in the summer of 2004 from Rennes and has made 115 appearances in four seasons with the Blues. Cech has played a total of 166 games in all competitions – recording 90 clean sheets – for Chelsea and was thrilled to extend his contract.

"It is an honour to be at Chelsea and I am very happy to have renewed my contract," said Cech, "not just because of my team-mates and all the people that work for the club but also because of their fantastic fans."