You need to know how to listen and say enough at the right time. After sixteen years of career and more than 700 games played, I have decided to end my career as a professional footballer”. With these words yesterday Eden Hazard announced on social networks his retirement from active football, a decision already expected since the Belgian did not find a team this summer after resigning from the season he had signed with Real Madrid, an exit through the back door for one of those who had been considered during his time at Chelsea (seven years) one of the best footballers in European football. It was, moreover, the most expensive signing (130 million) and the least profitable in the history of Real Madrid, with whom Florentino Pérez intended to replace the departure of Cristiano Ronaldo.
Eden Hazard is leaving at the age of 32, an age at which nowadays it is common to stay at the top level. However, the feeling is that the Belgian already started to go away with his signing for Madrid, in which he was never able to display his football even though he was at his peak, with the Europa League won by Chelsea and him with the consideration of the best player in the Premier League, just one step below Messi or Cristiano and a potential Ballon d’Or, as Florentino Pérez said in his presentation, on June 13, 2019 , in front of 50,000 spectators at the Bernabéu (numbers surpassed only by Cristiano and Kaká’s presentations).
Hazard’s has been an intense race, at full throttle. After five years at Lille in the French League under the orders of Rudi García, he consecrated himself at Chelsea, where he is remembered as a talented left winger who was almost impossible to get the ball off and with great definition. The nickname said it all: little Messi. Belgium had found their new Enzo Scifo, the player who would lead an exceptional generation that would shine at the European Cups and World Cups under the command of the Catalan Robert Martínez.
Hazard would go on to win the Premier League with Chelsea and Madrid soon had him as one of their main targets (the last obsession before that of Kylian Mbappé). After several attempts, he was finally able to get it in the summer of 2019 and then began a love story and disagreements that lasted four years, in which everything has been bitter on both sides.
In the first pre-season, Hazard showed up at Valdebebas with seven kilos more. It was immediately the subject of memes, portrayed as eating hamburgers and fries. The Belgian claimed that it was usual in his career to start the last season heavy (matter of metabolism, he said) and that after a few weeks he would be fine. It was never quite like that. In any case, his career as a Madrid player came to an abrupt halt on November 26, 2019, when his compatriot Meunier seriously injured him with a tackle that shattered his ankle in a game against PSG at the Bernabéu.
The player had to go through the operating room to implant a titanium plate. He was out for many months and was never the same again. He stepped badly and this caused him constant muscle injuries. During his four years as a Real Madrid player, he suffered fourteen injuries. His numbers were disappointing. In four seasons he played only 54 games, in which he scored four goals and made seven assists.
In the Valdebebas dressing room they remember him as a cheerful and committed man, unlike Gareth Bale, who was always seen as a strange beast, a lying Brit.
With such rickety numbers in white, at his best Hazard is remembered, apart from the Premier League, for the Red Devils. In his selection, in which he was the captain for many years, he was happy, playing 126 games and scoring 33 goals. Although he hardly had minutes in the last two seasons at Madrid, Robert Martínez took him to Qatar and granted him the status of starter until the penultimate day. The press of his country yesterday filled him with praise in a farewell sense. La Libre Belgique opened the Sports cover like this: “Goodbye to the Belgian prodigy”.
