Caicedo has spoken of modeling his game on Makelele when growing up in Ecuador. And for the France World Cup winner, the admiration is mutual.
Makelele told Tribalfootball.com: "I love the boy. I played with Michael Essien, Frank Lampard, (John) Obi Mikel, Scott Parker. I played with many good players, very good players. But this boy, he has something different. I think he will progress a lot. I will keep pushing him because I talk with him.
"I’ve visited Chelsea a few times, and I have had the opportunity to talk to him. He needs proper leadership. Proper leadership is the way I've been with him. Take care of the team and make the decision before the manager makes the decision. This will help Chelsea with winning games.
"You must show leadership with body language, leadership with and without talking, and leadership with setting an example in the game. You must do everything for your teammates.
"He now stands as a top, top player in the world. He’s young, he will progress, and he will have a great future."
He must do his own thing
While pleased knowing Caicedo sees him as a role-model, Makelele admits he is always urging the midfielder to blaze his own trail.
The Frenchman continued: "I hope for him, that he uses me as an example, but he needs to do his own thing. This is because to achieve a high level, sometimes it's difficult (to achieve).
"Some players, they disappear because they get compared a lot. You can compare some great players, like Messi, to everybody, but they don’t compare. I think for him (Caicedo), he needs to concentrate and do his job, because playing as a midfielder is so complicated.
"He’s a very complete player. I think in the future he can play even better in this position and have the proper quality to give back for the young generation behind him."
- Claude Makelele was speaking to Tribalfootball.com on behalf of online sports platform, Oddspedia