Chelsea's Makelele hits back at Real Madrid president

Chelsea midfielder Claude Makelele has hit back at criticisms made by Real Madrid president Florentino Perez this week.

Perez said in a magazine interview that Makelele was no great loss for Real and rapped that the Frenchman hardly ever passed the ball "more than three metres".

In response, Makelele said last night: "Florentino is free to say what he wants. If he means by those words that I am a poor footballer, then those comments don't deserve a reply."

"The truth is I couldn't care less what he says."