The announcement of Eden Hazard’s contract being terminated will have come as a relief to many Real Madrid fans. He has been at the club for four years, and done very little of note. He even turned up overweight to his first ever pre-season camp at Madrid, his dream club. That also happened in multiple seasons at the Belgian’s former club, Chelsea.
Several ex-teammates of Hazard have been on the record talking about how poor a trainer he is. Players like John Terry and John Obi Mikel have spoken about how he would put in no effort in training, but then turn it on on matchdays. That attitude of not working hard every day was perhaps acceptable when the Belgian was lighting up the Premier League every week, but the problem is that the performances have not translated to his time in Spain.
Hazard only made 76 appearances for Real Madrid. He scored seven goals in four years, the statistics are uncomfortably stark. Any way that this transfer could be spun, it has been a huge failure. Many would call it one of the worst transfers of all time. It’s difficult to make any case for the forward, who joined Los Blancos for €100m in 2019, and they have ended up having to terminate his contract a year early.
He has had an unfortunate time with injuries, missing 24 games through injury in his first season. Incredibly, he only missed 21 games through injury in his whole seven-year spell at Chelsea. His injuries only got worse as well, missing 33 games in the 2020-21 season. The truth, however, is that in the last two years, he has not had many injuries, he’s just simply not taken advantage of the game time that has been afforded to him.
Hazard made a promise to the Real Madrid fans last summer when the players were out celebrating their Champions League triumph. He said that this season he was going to perform, this season was going to be the year where he repaid the huge fee that Real paid for him. The reality is that this season he has started two league games, and his relationship with Carlo Ancelotti is non-existent. His time with Real Madrid is to end in extreme disappointment, from all parties.
Japtej Ghura | GSFN
Eden Hazard: The fall of the Belgian king
