He would eventually complete a £13.5m move to Chelsea after a protracted transfer saga, as then-Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez was forced to turn his attention elsewhere. In the end, the Reds snapped up Yossi Benayoun from West Ham United and Ryan Babel from Ajax for a combined £16.5m instead, with the pair signing permanently alongside Fernando Torres, Lucas Leiva, Emilian Insua, Charles Itandje, Sebastian Leto, and Andriy Voronin as part of a £47m summer spending spree.
Malouda recently appeared on old Chelsea team-mate John Obi Mikel’s podcast, The Obi Wan Podcast, as he revealed all on how his Lyon manager at the time, former Reds boss Gerard Houllier, was a driving factor pushing him towards a move to Anfield, only for the Frenchman to snub both Liverpool and Real Madrid to move to Stamford Bridge instead. “Liverpool was actually the first to really show interest,” he recalled. “My coach as the time was Gerard Houllier, he had been at Liverpool for a long time.
“They were doing well in the Champions League. When I heard that there was an interest, I went to his office. It was funny, he loves Liverpool so much, he just made a phone call to Rick Parry at the time – and they started to negotiate my contract. He was the manager of Lyon making the deal for Liverpool! It was very, very close.
“The second club was Real Madrid but I really wanted to come to Chelsea. I knew some of the guys like Michael Essien, [Claude] Makelele, them guys and I was coming sometimes to watch the games. So I was feeling close to Chelsea.” “I left Lyon because I wanted to win the Champions League and I had this feeling Chelsea was the place where I could adapt to the Premier League and compete to win the Champions League.
“It took us a bit of time, we lost the final in Moscow but it was the right choice. I had the opportunity with Liverpool and Madrid, big names as well, but I was feeling I would fit into that Chelsea team.”
Admittedly, this is not the first time Malouda has played the, ‘I snubbed Liverpool to join Chelsea,’ card. In fact, he has been vocal about the Reds’ interest in his services ever since transfer speculation started to heat up back in May 2007.
The Reds had hoped to sign the France international from Lyon in an £8m deal back at the start of the summer of 2007, only for the winger to decide he only wanted to move to Stamford Bridge. Having seen Moises Caicedo (and Romeo Lavia) do similar to Jurgen Klopp’s side earlier this year, doesn’t that sound familiar?
