Michael Olise: The Next Great Artist for Real Madrid

Claude Makelele has seen enough of the game’s great artists to know one when he spots one – and in Michael Olise, he sees a player Real Madrid should not let pass them by.

The former Real and Chelsea midfielder revealed he has already gone straight to the top at the Bernabeu to make his case, telling president Florentino Perez that, if the club is going big on one signing, Olise should be the man.

“Michael Olise to Real Madrid? I would support it. I had the opportunity to speak with President Florentino Perez and I told him that if there's money to spend on just one player, it's him,” Makelele said, laying out just how highly he rates the winger.

For Makelele, Olise is not just another talented wide player. He represents something more nostalgic, almost romantic, about the sport.

Olise, he argued, brings back the feeling of discovering football as a child – the sense that anything can happen when the ball reaches the feet of a true technician. Makelele highlighted his creativity and match-changing ability, stressing how noticeable his absence becomes when he is not on the pitch. Talent. Freedom. Quality. Effectiveness. In Makelele’s eyes, Olise ticks every box.

The praise went even higher when Makelele tried to explain Olise’s influence on games. He reached for the biggest reference point of all: Lionel Messi.

When Olise is in form, Makelele said, there is a constant tension in the air, that feeling that something unexpected can arrive at any moment. He pointed to the way players such as Ousmane Dembele, Kylian Mbappe and Bradley Barcola react around him, fully aware he can slide a pass into spaces others do not even imagine. That, Makelele argued, is what modern football should look like – the kind that makes fans dream and leaves commentators gasping at the technique on display. In his words, Olise is exceptional.

The temptation, of course, is to throw Olise straight into the conversation with another young star already lighting up Madrid: Jude Bellingham. Makelele refused to go there.

Asked to choose between the two, he dismissed the premise. Let them speak with their football, he insisted. What both are doing is already exceptional and does not need the crutch of comparison.

That led him to a wider point about the game’s greats. Makelele underlined his long-held belief that you do not compare players across eras – not Pele with those who followed, not Diego Maradona with the endless list of successors, not Zinedine Zidane with anyone. Zidane, he said, left a mark on world football that will endure regardless of who comes next.

In the same way, Makelele wants Bellingham and Olise to be allowed to build their own stories, on their own terms, and write their names into football’s history without being forced into someone else’s mould.

For Real Madrid, the question now is simple: do they share his vision of Olise as the next great artist to step onto the Bernabeu stage?