Eden Hazard spent seven years at Chelsea
and for most of those he was among the
very best players in the Premier League
in 2019 Real Madrid broke their transfer
record to sign Hazard paying 120 million
euros just four years later however he
was released in a free transfer and
spent the summer of 2023 struggling to
generate any interest so what actually
happened to Eden Hazard
Hazard was vital to Chelsea he was the
club's player of the year and four of
his seven seasons and in 2014-15 was
voted both the PFA and fwa's footballer
of the year in England hazard's
consistency was more remarkable for the
physical attention he often attracted he
was most dangerous when carrying the
ball forward and Premier League defenses
responded to that with aggression data
collected between the start of the
2014-15 season and the spling of 2017
shows that Hazard was by far the most
fouled player in the league the
consequence was twofold it raised
concerns about the treatment for
skillful players but importantly and in
a way that shaped the context of his
Real Madrid career its subjected Hazard
to considerable physical attrition by
the time Hazard arrived in Madrid at 28
he had already been subjected to a
career's worth of punishment he's had
few major injuries save an ankle surgery
in 2016 but had been exposed to
significant wear and tear even so his
Beginnings as a Real Madrid player might
have been better her for his first
pre-season he arrived weighing 80
kilograms which is overweight attracting
significant negative attention in the
Spanish media in response he reflected
on the episode in an interview with
lekeep later in 2019 saying that it's
true I'm not going to hide it but when
I'm on vacation I'm on vacation I had
put on five kilos and the type to put on
quickly and lose so quickly if I'm
careful a year earlier Real Madrid fans
had seen the ultra professional
Cristiano Ronaldo depart for Juventus
and the natural comparison between the
two hardly flattered Hazard what's often
forgotten though is that his career
after that difficult beginning did
actually briefly recover in November of
2019 he enjoyed the succession of
excellent performances particularly
against ibar and real sociedad in La
Liga during the latter he combined
brilliantly with carrying Benzema and
Rodrigo in a front three and was
arguably the man of the match but if
there was a sliding doors moment in
hazard's real career it would come at
the end of that month in the Champions
League real had been drawn against Paris
Sandra German in the group stages and in
the home tie he gave the kind of
excellent performance for which he was
signed however in the second half of
that game and after turning away from
Thomas munier he suffered an injury to
the same ankle that he had previously
broken at Chelsea and to which he had
already had a small metal plate fitted
initially diagnosed just as bruising a
fracture was detected a week later as
serious as that was it was actually more
significant than real or Hazard could
have known between November 2019 and his
release in June 2023 he would score just
three League goals make fewer than 50
appearances in all competitions and
would complete 90 minutes for Real
Madrid just once he would also only
score one more International goal for
Belgium November 2019 began an
extraordinary run of injuries the week
after limping out of the Champions
League Hazard would be diagnosed with
that broken foot during his comeback
from that injury in a game against
Levante he would suffer another fracture
a more serious one this time requiring
further surgery
according to reporting by the athletic
it was felt that hazard's tendency to
spin and turn on his ankle pivoting more
like a basketball player than a
footballer had been a contributory
factor in his ankle problems as a result
his surgery was carried out in the
United States by a surgeon with
experience of treating NBA players and
was a result of an even bigger metal
plate being inserted he was unfortunate
also in that much of his recovery took
place during the initial days of the
pandemic and Via Zoom meetings but that
luck wouldn't change over the three and
a half years he would experience 13
separate injuries contract coronavirus
in late 2020 and in 2022 have the plate
from the February 2020 operation removed
believing it to be a partial cause of
his repeated muscle injuries there were
strange episodes too in May 2021 after
real were knocked out of the Champions
League by Chelsea television host Joseph
Pedro launched a blistering tirade
Hazard who had been seen laughing and
smiling with former teammates after
full-time at Stamford Bridge two years
of taking the pace out of Real Madrid
supporters two years of being overweight
just another Gareth Bale said Pedro to
the camera the frustration never seeing
the best from Hazard despite his
transfer fee certainly seemed to
influence the tone of reporting and
stoke the anger of supporters in
addition to which while injuries
prevented him from developing the Rhythm
needed to recover his form they also to
those who watched appeared to destroy
the physical confidence of a player who
had once been Fearless with the ball at
the same time he was also becoming
obsolete under Zinedine Zidane and later
Carlo ancelotti vinicius Jr emerged as a
world-class player in the wide left role
that Hazard favored Rodrigo was another
emerging option on the right and
especially under ancelotti Betty
Valverde gave strong performances in a
hybrid wide Midfield role also Hazard
was still Real Madrid's record signing
but he was also their white elephant so
much so that when he left the club on a
free transfer in June 2023 having played
Just 54 Elite games and scored four
League goals it felt barely significant
and notable solely as the end of a long
unhappy and extremely expensive Saga
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