Madrid, Sep 19: Former French football star Claude Makelele on Monday said that teammate Zinedine Zidane used to train with him one-on-one to improve his dribbling capabilities and to sustain kicks from opposing markers.

"I know why he wanted to do this, because he wanted to work on his qualities as a dribbler, his movement, because he'd spend every game getting kicked by his markers," Makelele explained in an interview to the UEFA website.

The remarks came in the discussion after the performance of FC Barcelona's Brazilian star forward Neymar against Leganes, where he executed several dribbles that his rivals did not like, reports Efe.

After the game Argentine forward Lionel Messi was quick to defend his teammate as not intending any malice.

Moreover, Makelele said that his former Real Madrid teammates Zidane and Ronaldo "are both geniuses and both changed world football, but in different ways".

IANS