The Rise and Fall of Eden Hazard

Guess the player with these stats - has made 36 appearances, with half of them being starts. He has scored 5, while Transfermarkt values him at €25 million. Any guesses? Maybe Gabriel Martinelli of Arsenal? Rafael Leao? Well, you're most probably wrong. The answer is Eden Hazard.

It's shocking to even fathom that only 2 years ago, Hazard was seen as the successor to Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. The face of Los Blancos. What went wrong?

Before we focus on what went wrong, let's turn the clock back to the good old days.

After being born to footballing parents, he enlisted at his local football team, Royal Stade Branois, at the age of 4, where one of his coaches described him as "gifted". After moving to Tubize, he was scouted by French club Lille.

After spending 4 productive seasons at Lille, earning a Ligue 1 Player of the Year, and being dubbed "little Messi" by his coach Claude Puel, he earned a £32 million move to English giants Chelsea.

It was with the Blues where Hazard spent his peak years. His 7 years at the club are described as arguably the greatest stretch in Premier League history, which culminated in 2 Premier Leagues, 1 FA Cup, 1 English League and 2 Europa Leagues, according to Transfermarkt. It wasn't just individual success though, as he also won the PFA Young Player of the Year, FWA Footballer of the Year, the PFA Players' Player of the Year, and was featured in the FIFA FIFPro World XI in 2018. His form also made him captain of Belgium, where he led the team to a number one FIFA ranking for the first time (they still are first place) and a third-place finish in the 2018 World Cup in Russia (their highest ever finish in a World Cup), where he won the Silver Ball.

As I was going through the internet to find the opinion of the public of Hazard's reign at Chelsea, I came across this Quora article, in which the user asks fellow users who they think will succeed Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.

Eden Hazard seemed to be a popular choice among the users, and one user even says that "he has still not hit his prime. He is one of the best in PL and is bound to be one of the world's best in near future."

Everything seemed to be on the up for the Chelsea talisman. After beating the Unai Emery-led Arsenal team 4-1, scoring twice and assisting once, he earned his dream move to Real Madrid.

After being Real Madrid's second most expensive player, behind Gareth Bale, and being given the No. 7 shirt, worn by club legends like Ronaldo and Raul, the pressure was high on Hazard being the heir to Ronaldo, following a lacklustre season from Real Madrid.

It seemed as if everything was going the talisman's way. What could possibly go wrong?

Almost immediately, cracks started appearing beneath this marriage. Hazard joined Los Blancos 5 kilograms overweight. His performances for the club did not make up for his weight. Whereas in Chelsea, the team revolved around Hazard, he struggled for chemistry with his strike partners Karim Benzema and Bale.

Soon after scoring his lone goal in his debut season for Real, he would be sidelined with an injury, which kept him out for 16 games.

Injuries have been the story of his troubled tenure at the Madridistas. According to data from transfermarkt.com, the Belgian has missed 61 games in 3 seasons after joining Real. Compare that to 21 games missed in 7 seasons with the Blues. Hazard has even missed more games (24 in 2019/20 and 33 in 2020/21) each full season he has spent with Los Merengues than he has over his entire Chelsea combined.

The Belgian team doctor told the media, following the superstar picking up a muscle injury that his injuries are chronic, meaning that it is likely that Hazard's injuries will keep repeating.

During his time at Chelsea, Hazard made 245 appearances for the London club. Only Manchester United goalkeeper David de Gea made more appearances during this span, with 246. Keep in mind that de Gea is a goalkeeper, and thus requires less physicality than that of an outfield player.

It is very much possible that Hazard's body, who was a victim of a high volume of challenges in the Premier League as a result of his star status, is unable to keep up with the high physical and mental demands of an elite footballer.

Others, such as coach Jose Mourinho and John Obi Mikel, have questioned his work ethic, with the former saying "The truth is what you see from him, he is an amazing player with awful training," and "But he gets onto the pitch every morning and...he doesn’t work much. When he gets onto the pitch you don’t see the reflection of a week of work, you just see a reflection of his talent."

Obi Mikel said "He didn’t like to train hard. While we were working he was waiting for us to finish training just standing there."

Former Arsenal coach Arsene Wenger has pinned the former superstar's struggles in Madrid to becoming overweight, with the Belgian's weight struggles being noticed by fans and the media regularly.

It seems almost as if Hazard has lost his passion for playing for the club he once said he supported as a child. Following the knocking out of Real Madrid in the 2020/21 Champions League in the semifinal to Chelsea, the team he had once lit up the world with, he had to apologize to Real fans as he was seen laughing with Chelsea players Kurt Zouma and Edouard Mendy.

Even when healthy, Hazard has seemed to be more of a liability to Los Vikingos, rather than an asset. Hazard's position-less play requires compromising in defense, something which managers have been hesitant in doing, thus playing him in unfamiliar roles more often. As a result, Hazard's stats have taken a dip, to say the least. Stats from transfermarkt.com say that while the Belgian was involved in goal contributions (scoring or assisting) 202 times, averaging a goal contribution roughly every other game, Hazard now has 14 goal contributions, averaging a contribution roughly every 4 games.

Hazard's nightmare-like Real story seems to be set in stone - one of wasted potential. Even when fit, something of a rare occurrence, the talisman cannot seem to get into the starting XI. Real have accepted the fact that Hazard will not be the heir to Ronaldo.

As a result, the club has started to try and offload him from their wage budget.

Although denied by manager Thomas Tuchel, there have been rumours of a potential swap deal, which involves Real receiving Chelsea outcast Hakim Ziyech and Hazard returning to his old home at Stamford Bridge.

In October, Spanish media outlet El Nacional reported that Chelsea's director, Mariana Granovskaia has opened talks with Eden Hazard's contingent on a possible return to London.

However, Chelsea are not the only Premier League clubs to have rumored interest in the former superstar - Saudi-led Newcastle are reportedly willing to put an offer for a loan move on the table, West Ham have had bids for Hazard turned down by Real, and Everton have reported interest, as well.

Moving away from England, El Nacional have also reported that Juventus and Hazard share a mutual interest in the Belgian representing the Old Lady.

Only 3 years ago, Hazard was an instrumental piece in a historic World Cup for his country Belgium. However, a combination of poor work ethic, injuries, managers not building their teams around the Belgian and overall bad form have seen him suffer a monumental fall from grace.

There is no denying the fact that Eden Hazard is not turning his Real Madrid career around. The fans, the media, and most importantly, his team have given up on him. However, not all hope is lost. We have seen players like Renato Sanches, Jesse Lingard and Luke Shaw all revive their careers after previously being hung out to dry by the footballing world.

It remains to be seen if "Ederzinho" can fulfil the promise of being the heir to Messi and Ronaldo. It remains to be seen if he can revive his career in a blue jersey, a black and white jersey, or any other colour of a jersey.

However, for now, Eden Hazard's legacy is complicated. One of a legend in the royal blue of Chelsea quickly turned into a laughing stock when donning the white of Real Madrid.