MY ACCOUNT
Antonio Rudiger will be looking to inflict further pain on former side Chelsea in the Champions League quarter-finals on Wednesday.
The Real Madrid defender was one of the key figures in Thomas Tuchel’s team that beat Manchester City in the final of the competition back in 2021.
He left Stamford Bridge on a free transfer last summer and was snapped up by the current Champions League holders.
Ahead of the first leg at the Bernabeu tonight, we look back on Rudiger’s time with the Blues and assess how he has been getting on since moving to the Spanish capital.
Contract talks
Rudiger began talks with Chelsea over a new contract in the summer of 2021, shortly after helping the club to be crowned champions of Europe.
At the time he was one of squad’s lowest-paid senior players on £90,000-a-week. The German was not impressed by the initial offer and negotiations quickly broke down.
It perhaps did not help matters that when Romelu Lukaku arrived in West London that summer, it was widely reported that the striker had been given a weekly wage of £340,000.
Though they eventually tried to make Rudiger the best-paid defender in their history on £230,000-a-week, by this stage there were bigger offers available from elsewhere.
The Blues missed their chance to tie down the centre-back at a time when he was keen to commit himself to a club being successfully led by his compatriot Tuchel. Their loss is now Real Madrid’s gain.
Inconsistent form
It might seem strange that Chelsea had let such an important player’s contract run down in the first place but it is easy to forget that his time at the club was far from an unqualified success.
Signed from Roma ahead of the 2017-18 campaign, Rudiger was part of Antonio Conte’s team that won the FA Cup in his first year.
A serious knee injury saw him miss the Europa League success the following season under Maurizio Sarri and a groin problem left him sidelined for much of 2019-20, when Frank Lampard took charge.
The player’s form was not always consistent and there was talk of Lampard selling him in 2020. At the time of Tuchel’s appointment in January 2021, he had only played eight times that season.
But under his fellow German, he became a crucial part of Chelsea’s team that would unexpectedly win the Champions League.
Playing as one of three centre-backs, Tuchel’s team became known for their defensive solidity, keeping a string of clean sheets on their way to the triumph over Manchester City in Lisbon.
The central defender had quickly gone from being a bit-part player under Lampard, to a vital member of the squad. This rapid change in status left Chelsea on the hop.
Real progress
Now at Real Madrid, the 30-year-old is trying to establish the same sort of reputation at his new club that he belatedly earned at his old one.
With Carlo Ancelotti favouring a back four, the Berlin-born ace has been fighting it out with David Alaba for the role of left-sided central defender alongside Eder Militao.
He has become more relied upon as the season has progressed, starting both of the last-16 games against Liverpool.
Meanwhile, Chelsea have spent many millions on the likes of Wesley Fofana, Kalidou Koulibaly and Benoit Badiashile, in an effort to replace the player that they lost for free.
As yet, no one looks as accomplished as Rudiger. The positive spin is that he was far from being an overnight success at the Blues himself.
