I first saw him at Celta, who i was following every week with Mostovoi and Karpin there.
He formed part of a great midfield with Mostovoi, Karpin, Mazinho and Revivo which was imo as good as any in the league at the time, but did not have the quality in the rest of the team or enough depth to compete for the title.
Though i considered him an excellent defensive midfielder i actually thought he was the worst and least interesting of the group. Mazinho was playing the very last top level season of his career when Makelele came and much less mobile, but was still equally effective a DM with his great positioning, decision making and notably superior passing. Mostovoi and Karpin tied everything together and were the ones that really elevated the team with their technique, vision, midfield dictating qualities and Karpin's almost Nedved level workrate from the right wing and into midfield. Revivo was a lazy mercenary take one game off from every three sort of player that never fulfilled his potential, but had an excellent Ginola-like two footed winger skillset and was mostly playing very well these seasons before he took the money from Fenerbahce and faded into obscurity.
Makelele in this company was in all honesty a bit dull and though playing his holding role (alongside Mazinho for the first season) very well was certainly not the man that made it all hold together or the most talented. His leaving didn't have any impact on mostovoi/karpin's ability to run a midfield on very competitive terms with the other top end of the league la liga teams.
He went on to a great career and vital role with Real Madrid, Chelsea (where is style was perfect fit with Mourinho tactics) and eventually France, can't really add anything more there than what has already been said, but i feel it is worth pointing out his vestigial organ status at the excellent Celta midfield as a counterpoint to a lot of the mythmaking around his career as being that of someone who was vital in binding together a midfield that contained such attacking players as Zidane, Raul, Ronaldo and Figo. imo from watching Real at the time, while he was undeniably important it was at least as much the case in that team dropping off a level that those players were starting to decline and become more inconsistent circa 2002/2003 anyway.
Overall i agree with Invictus and Harms takes on him, excellent player that has some over the top myths around him like the creating a new style thing.