Antonio Rudiger admits he is overwhelmed by the loyalty Chelsea fans have shown him as he opened up about an incident where they leaped to his defence when one supporter abused him.
The defender is set to play his last game for the Blues at the weekend against Watford as he joins Real Madrid as a free agent. The Stamford Bridge faithful will be gutted to lose the German but they will surely give him a great send-off due to their great relationship with him.
Rudiger alluded to this special connection with the support during an incident after a 6-0 defeat by Manchester City in 2019 as he said goodbye to the Chelsea fanbase with a piece on The Players' Tribune. The stopper revealed that one supporter started hurling abuse at him as he went over to the visiting fans to apologise for the heavy loss.
But to his surprise, the rest of the Chelsea fans turned on the individual in question and told him to say sorry to Rudiger. The centre-half insists it sums up the highs of lows of his time at Chelsea but was overwhelmed by the fact the "real fans" had his back.
He said: "I want to leave you with a final memory that is bittersweet. Sometimes the things that have the most impact on you are not all good, or all bad. For me, this memory is simply Chelsea.
"It happened in 2019, after City smashed us 6–0 at the Etihad. To be honest, they murdered us. It was embarrassing. After the final whistle, I walked over to the travelling Chelsea fans to raise my hands and apologize. As I walked over, I expected them to boo. But they were all on their feet clapping. Even in such a bad moment, they had our back.
"I was shocked. I put my hands up, like, Sorry, sorry, sorry. As I got closer, this one guy in the crowd started shouting abuse at me. He was maybe five meters away, looking me right in the eyes. Listen, I have heard abuse all my life, but this was different. It was really personal. I shouted to him, “Hey, if you want to talk, then come down here and we can have a conversation.
"Of course, he didn’t even take one step. Immediately, he stopped shouting. And what was remarkable to me was that all the fans around him turned to him and said, “Hey, what are you doing? He’s coming here to apologize. What’s wrong with you?”
Rudiger discussed how the other fans rallied around him and the person that abused him would not only apologise to him, but even he joined in with other supporters in applauding the 29-year-old.
He added: "The fans — the real fans — started cheering for me even louder.
"It was so overwhelming that even the idiot started clapping, too. The other fans literally made him clap and apologize to me. I will never forget that. Never."
