Antonio Rudiger: The natural-born leader Chelsea still lack and a source of Real regret (2024)

Over £500million ($620m) spent on new players and Chelsea have still not replaced Antonio Rudiger.

“Toni has been sorely missed this season, he was a real character around the place,” a source close to one of the senior players, speaking anonymously to The Athletic in order to protect relationships, said. “He was a top guy, a great guy to have in the dressing room. Lots of the players looked up to him.

“He was a great character, a winner, a leader.”

Chelsea’s fanbase may have a number of gripes with the club’s new owners, including sacking Thomas Tuchel and Graham Potter in the space of seven months, but seeing Rudiger in a Real Madrid shirt when the teams line up at the Bernabeu for the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final on Wednesday night should not be one of them. That was a problem inherited from the previous regime.

It was 12 months ago that The Athletic broke the news Rudiger had decided to leave Stamford Bridge upon the expiry of his contract in the summer of 2022. Soon after, it was confirmed he had agreed a move to Real Madrid as a free agent.

It did not have to be this way. The story of Rudiger’s negotiations with Chelsea over an extension is long and complex. The Germany international was offered less than half the salary earned by Chelsea’s highest-paid player, Romelu Lukaku, when talks began in the summer of 2021. By the time the club upped their offer to over £200,000 a week, it was too little, too late.

Some may baulk at the suggestion the wage offered was on the small side, but Real Madrid promised him a huge signing-on fee that effectively took his package beyond anything Chelsea could afford. The fact Chelsea were operating under sanctions between March and May, imposed upon the owner Roman Abramovich as part of the UK government’s response to Russia’s invasion of neighbouring Ukraine, hardly helped their cause. They were unable to discuss new deals even with those on the books whose contracts were running down.

Yet it was the personal slight felt by Rudiger during the initial talks which was the main cause of the schism; the defender felt he had been disrespected by those in charge so soon after helping the team win the Champions League in 2021.

The Todd Boehly-Clearlake consortium, who bought the club at the end of last May, could not believe the club had allowed a player of Rudiger’s pedigree to leave the club for nothing. They were equally dismayed that a similar situation had been allowed to develop with Andreas Christensen, whose own contract negotiations had been just as protracted and culminated in him joining Barcelona as a free agent.

It is one of the factors they blame for the club reporting a £121.3million loss in their latest financial accounts. If they had been granted the option to sell the duo, they estimate it would have raised at least £100million. As it transpired, their departures under freedom of contract ended up costing Chelsea’s new regime significantly more.

Chelsea have spent £189million on four defenders in the transfer market — Kalidou Koulibaly, Wesley Fofana, Benoit Badiashile and Marc Cucurella — in the period since, and have also paid £26.3million for the young full-back Malo Gusto, who is seeing out the season on loan at his former club, Lyon. Badiashile and Fofana have shown promise when selected, yet Koulibaly and Cucurella have yet to match Rudiger’s performances as a left-sided centre-back.

But it is his absence around the dressing room which has been felt keenest of all as Chelsea have slumped to 11th in the Premier League.

“He was the kind of guy who kept the standards high at training,” the source continued. “He was John Terry-esque. It was a massive blow, a huge loss. It was not just his football ability — it was the desire he showed, the leadership on and off the pitch. There were a few times where the team were struggling and, at half-time, he would just go in and let rip. (Former coach Thomas) Tuchel would kind of let him off the leash and then would step in to calm it all down.

“He still messages some of his old team-mates. The bond between the players who won the Champions League will never be broken. Rudiger is a hard man to replace. He should never have been allowed to leave. The new hierarchy know that, but the fact he did was not because of them.”

It should be acknowledged that the Germany international’s form was not always great after joining from Roma for £29million in 2017 — something to bear in mind when judging the impact made on the numerous new arrivals over the last year. Indeed, Rudiger struggled for consistency at the back after suffering a serious knee injury in 2019 and was far from being a fan favourite.

Frank Lampard, now reinstalled as the club’s interim until the summer, took up the reins for his first stint as head coach at Stamford Bridge that year and, if he had had his way, Rudiger would have been sold in 2020. The centre-half ended up staying, but played just eight times before Lampard was sacked in January 2021.

“He has done fantastically well,” Chelsea’s interim told The Athletic on the eve of the tie in Madrid. “When I last saw him, when I was Everton manager and he was with Chelsea but the Madrid move was happening, I wished him well. My relationship with him is fine. As manager of Chelsea, which I was and I am again now, you have 25 or 27 players to choose from and Rudiger played a lot for me. Our story ended, but he was a big part of the Champions League story — good luck to him.

“Good luck to any professional who works as hard as he does, because he deserves it.”

Those were conciliatory words, but one suspects Lampard’s presence in the visitors’ dugout on Wednesday will act as an extra motivation for Rudiger, whether he admits it publicly or not.

There was also talk during Lampard’s reign of Rudiger’s behaviour crossing the line. There were rumours he played some kind of Machiavellian role in the Englishman’s dismissal, something he denied to The Athletic. Reports of the centre-back clashing on more than one occasion with captain Cesar Azpilicueta surfaced around the same time, plus suggestions he had been unimpressed by Lampard’s desire to pick academy players — two claims the German also denied.

Rudiger’s best football at Chelsea was reserved for his time under his compatriot, Tuchel. But, just over two months after the German replaced Lampard, the defender had an altercation with keeper Kepa Arrizabalaga during training. Yet another club source, speaking anonymously to protect relationships, is keen to stress that if there were any problems caused by Rudiger, they were far outweighed by the positives.

“Toni was very good with the younger guys,” he explains. “Look at when Chelsea won the Europa League against Arsenal in 2019 and Callum Hudson-Odoi and Ruben Loftus-Cheek could not be at the game in Baku due to injury. Toni was not able to play either due to a knee injury, but he was in the dressing room as the team celebrated. It was his idea to Facetime Ruben and Callum on his phone so they could be part of the celebrations.

“He was always first to put an arm around people like Tammy Abraham and Fikayo Tomori. They always referred to him as ‘Big Bro’. Yes, he would not think twice about fronting up to people in training. If something needed to be said, he’d say it.

“Graham (Potter) showed he is a good guy when he took over from Tuchel this season, but perhaps everything was a bit too nice. There are some guys still here who step up, but perhaps it needed someone to really say what needed to be said.

“Rudiger would have done that.”

His bond with Tuchel was perhaps the tightest he enjoyed with anyone at Chelsea. The pair spoke early last season with each promising to stay at the club for as long as the other did. The club’s supporters might reflect with some sadness that this vow went unfulfilled.

Not everything has gone perfectly for Rudiger since he made the move to the Bernabeu, a transfer Real Madrid first explored as far back as 2016.

When he had to pull out of the Germany squad before that summer’s European Championship in France due to injury, Madrid sent a letter of encouragement to him. He had just completed a transfer to Roma from Stuttgart but the gesture sowed the seed he might sign for them one day. He knew Real were monitoring his progress.

After leaving Chelsea, he was always going to find it a lot harder to make a name for himself at arguably the biggest club in the world. The team he joined is blessed with high-profile talents such as Karim Benzema, Luka Modric and Vinicius Junior. Head coach Carlo Ancelotti has made centre-back Eder Militao his first choice, leaving Rudiger to battle it out with David Alaba for the other central slot.

Earlier in the campaign, it was not a contest he was winning regularly. There were outings at right-back and left-back just to ensure him game time.

A brave last-minute headed equaliser against Shakhtar Donetsk in October earned some favour with the demanding Real Madrid fanbase. The 30-year-old required 20 stitches after colliding with Shakhtar goalkeeper Anatolii Trubin in the process of scoring. Posting a picture on his Instagram account of his face covered in bandages, Rudiger wrote afterwards: “We alive. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. I am okay — thanks for all your messages.”

But a disappointing display in the 3-2 loss to rivals Barcelona in the Supercopa de Espana at the start of the year put him under negative scrutiny once again.

Rudiger has become far more prominent since the World Cup and started in the wins (5-2, 1-0) over Liverpool in the last-16 of the Champions League. Some of the traits which made him a key figure at Chelsea are finally coming to the fore. Among the squad, they highlight his leadership and good humour. His opinions are heard and respected, although not at quite the same level as at Chelsea given the number of established players in Ancelotti’s group who have been at the La Liga club for years.

It has helped that Rudiger understands Spanish perfectly, even if he would not count himself as a fluent Spanish speaker. The coaching staff have also appreciated the way he has conducted himself despite not being guaranteed to be in the first XI from the outset.

Life may appear tougher to make a mark in Madrid but, speaking to Marca in the build-up to the first leg against Chelsea, Rudiger made it pretty clear he has no regrets. “My first nine months? I couldn’t be happier,” he said. “Everything is perfect here.

“In Madrid, you’re under pressure even when you take the car to go to training. Defending at Real Madrid is much harder than at other clubs. There are days where I will play badly, but people can see that I give my everything.“

Chelsea know that better than anyone.

(Top photo: Flor Tan Jun/Getty Images)