Domenech v Chelsea

French coach Raymond Domenech is back at it again after several battles with Chelsea over French players. This time Domench is coming out and saying that playing for your national team takes priority over your club team.

Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho accused Domenech of treating Makelele "like a slave" by refusing to accept his retirement from international football. Domenech told the French Football Federation's website: "We need players, we don't hold a knife to their throats. "We have the priority and right to choose players for internationals."

This all came about when Claude Makelele was called up to play for France in the upcoming Euro 2008 qualifing rounds. Makelele came out of international retirement to help the French Squad make it to the finals of the World Cup. Now he is being asked to join the team again in their efforts to qualify for the European Championships. This will cause him to miss several Chelsea matches for every match he plays for France.

Makelele says he will honour his call-up and told French TV station TPS: "My coach's words are a bit strong." He added: "He's probably gone too far. But his disappointment is logical.
"Even if my club doesn't agree, I will humbly honour that call. "There was an agreement after the World Cup that I would retire," said Makelele. "But I spoke with the French team coach and he believes I am still able to bring something extra to the team. "I don't blame him (Domenech) for anything and I will go back and play with France." "It is normal to wear my country's shirt. The French team remains something huge to me."

Mourinho's response the all this was "Makelele is not a football player - Makelele is a slave." "He's played the biggest game you can, the World Cup final, and now wants to retire but the coach told us if he is not playing for France, he is not playing for Chelsea," said Mourinho.
"We know the rules. You are a slave, you have no human rights."

So the big question this brings up is, should a player be for his club or country first. Let me tell you from my perspective, a player should be for the club. The club pays your wages and is your day to day job. The country will call you up when needed and pays a significantly lower amount of money for you to play. Since you earn your living off of the club, you should always chose club before country. Some are confused because it is an honor to play for your country, but your contract is to the club. So chose the club before country. This in the opinion of Dave P. only and if you don't like it, tough.