Injury ruins Hazard's career

BINH DUONG

Philippe Coutinho, Antoine Griezmann and Ousmane Dembele's moves to Barcelona are all in the top 10 most expensive transfers in world football, but none compare to Eden Hazard's move to Real Madrid.

Hazard (left) when he first joined Real Madrid. Photo: Getty Images

In the summer of 2019, Real Madrid signed Hazard on a five-year contract for $114 million, making him the most expensive player in the club's history. However, after a total of four seasons with the Spanish Royal team, Hazard's performance was worse than his last season at his former club Chelsea. In four seasons at Madrid, the Belgian only played 2,529 minutes, contributed four goals, seven assists and had 90 successful dribbles. These numbers in the 2018-2019 season were 2,926 minutes, 16 goals, 15 assists and 137 dribbles.

When he debuted for Real Madrid, Hazard was criticized for being overweight, then a thigh injury kept him out for the first part of his first season. It wasn't until November 2019 that the left winger recovered and immediately regained his best form, winning the Man of the Match award twice. However, in the Champions League clash with PSG, Thomas Meunier's seemingly harmless tackle caused Hazard to struggle for more than 3 years. The proof is that since that match, he has only played 90 minutes for Real Madrid once and has never reproduced the terrible form he had at Chelsea.

Hazard once exploded on the left wing of Chelsea with his skillful, unpredictable and highly unpredictable dribbling. In his first year at Chelsea, he was named in the Professional Footballers' Association (PFA) Team of the Year. In his 7 seasons here, Hazard was voted Premier League Player of the Season 3 times and had many other outstanding performances. Even in his last match for Chelsea, the 2019 Europa League final, Hazard was named Man of the Match.

However, when he moved to Real Madrid, Hazard was no longer a superstar winger. He became slow, lost his sense of the ball and often lay on the ground. The star born in 1991 was tormented by at least 18 injuries, the most recent being patellar tendinitis in February. Remember, in a decade playing for Lille and Chelsea before moving to Real Madrid, Hazard only missed 22/380 matches in the domestic league.

Having become a shadow of his former self at Real Madrid, Hazard recently agreed to terminate his contract with the club early, while he is still the 11th most expensive player in transfer history. After leaving Real Madrid as a free agent at the end of this month, the former Belgian international will certainly receive many new offers, but they may only be from clubs with less prestige than the "White Vultures".

Source link