Forgotten star who played for Arsenal and Chelsea could change football forever

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Arsenal host Chelsea at the Emirates Stadium this Sunday in the Premier League.

The Gunners are looking to tighten their grip on second place in the English top flight, while the Blues will be hoping to drag Mikel Arteta’s team into the top four race.

Chelsea and Arsenal hold a deep hatred for each other, but in spite of this, many players have plied their trade for both clubs throughout their careers.

The likes of Cesc Fabregas, William Gallas and Olivier Giroud have all worn both teams’ shirts, although none of these players could have as substantial an impact on the game as one man who was employed by the pair of London giants.

• READ MORE: Cesc Fabregas once made a shocking admission over why Chelsea were better than Arsenal, he was spot on

Who is Lassana Diarra?

Former French defensive midfielder Lassana Diarra joined Chelsea in the summer of 2005, signing from Le Havre for £1 million.

Dubbed the ‘new Claude Makelele’, Diarra was touted as a potential superstar, a tag he ultimately ended up failing to fulfil.

Spending just two seasons at Stamford Bridge, making just 31 appearnaces in the process, the France international swapped West London for North in 2007.

Tipped by Arsene Wenger to achieve great things in an Arsenal shirt, Diarra managed just 13 appearances in N5, before being shipped off to Portsmouth in January 2008, after just a six-month stint at the Emirates.

• READ MORE: Lassana Diarra Has Reportedly Agreed To Join Portsmouth

Not a well-remembered figure for either club, Diarra surprisingly ended up at Real Madrid, playing over 100 times for Los Blancos between 2009 and 2012.

After leaving the Bernabeu, he’d enjoy brief spells at a number of clubs, including Marseille and Paris Saint-Germain, before retiring from football in 2019.

Lassana Diarra could be about to change football

In October 2024, Diarra sued FIFA for damages after successfully claiming that the transfer rules around his move to Lokomotiv Moscow in 2014 breached competition law (via the BBC).

The rules state that when clubs sign a free agent, they are jointly liable to pay compensation to a player’s former team if their contract was terminated for unjustified reasons.

After a falling out with the Lokomotiv coach, Diarra’s contract was terminated without just cause, and he was left without a club.

Due to the FIFA rules, prospective suitors were not willing to pay compensation to the Russian club to sign the midfielder, and he subsequently spent almost a year out of the game.

Eventually garnering interest from Charleroi in 2015, FIFA refused to provide Diarra with an international transfer certificate, which delayed his move to the Belgian outfit.

The former Arsenal star argued that these rules restricted his freedom of movement, and the European Court of Justice agreed with him.

This case could spark a monumental rule change in this area, with FIFA now set to hold a global consultation over potential adaptations to the ways in which free transfers work.

FIFA Chief legal and compliance officer Emilio Garcia Silvero said on the matter: “Fifa sees the Diarra decision as an opportunity to keep modernising its regulatory framework, which has been one of the declared objectives of the FIFA president since 2016.”