Johnny Phillips: Eden Hazard deserves his place among the Premier greats
“I have played and had fun on many pitches around the world,” said Eden Hazard on announcing his retirement at the age of 32. It seems too young in the modern era for a player of the winger’s ability to be calling it a day, but years of elite performances have taken their toll on his body.
Hazard will go down as one of the Premier League greats. His statistics along are remarkable, with 110 goals in 352 games for Chelsea. He won two Premier League titles – in 2015 and 2017 - a pair of Europa Leagues, one FA Cup and both the Professional Footballers’ Association and Football Writers’ Association Player of the Year awards in 2014-15.
But there was so much more to his game than stats. He played his football at a time when the art of dribbling seemed to be dying out. Yet he mastered his craft brilliantly and at a speed we had not seen before on these shores. At his peak there was simply no stopping him. And it was not just running with a ball at his feet. There was an end product to Hazard’s game that made him so deadly.
His goal against Arsenal at Stamford Bridge as Chelsea hunted down the second Premier League title of his time at the club has gone down in local folklore. He brought a bouncing ball under control from Diego Costa in his own half with a softness of touch that barely had him breaking stride, before setting off on a mazy run, shrugging off an assailant trying to push him out wide before heading straight for goal and evading the attentions of two more markers. Finally the ball nestled into the net as the Gunners’ defence trailed in his wake.
So many of his goals came from a standing start. He would generate his own speed and strength with that famous low centre of gravity that made him so hard to knock off balance. It gave him the ability to break defences who were not only well-organised but also not accustomed to dealing with such direct one-one-one duels.
For a man who infamously disliked training, Hazard perhaps surprisingly felt at home at Chelsea under both Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte, two of the more disciplinarian modern-day managers. A £32million transfer from Lille in 2011, the Belgian forward had ripped up Ligue 1 in his final season in France on the way to a league and cup double. He quickly found his feet in West London and by the time of his move away from the club eight years later, his value had risen through the £100m barrier.
Hazard’s career peaked in an era when Messi and Ronaldo were put on a pedestal but there were long periods in his Chelsea career when he performed week in and week out to incredible standards. For seven seasons he lit up Stamford Bridge and became genuinely indispensable.
His swansong for Chelsea came in the 2019 Europa League final; a London derby played in Azerbaijan. Hazard was man-of-the-match with two goals as Chelsea ran out 4-1 winners over Arsenal in Baku.
He was part of Belgium’s Golden Generation and many observers believe the team should have achieved more than the third place finish at the 2018 World Cup. Earning 126 caps, he is fourth on his country’s list of all-time appearance makers. His 33 goals puts him second on the top scorers’ list behind only Romelu Lukaku.
Mourinho loved the player and believed he was never protected from the harsher elements of defending that certainly took their toll on Hazard. The days of Norman Hunter, Ron Harris, Jack Charlton, Tommy Smith and co may be long gone but a player of Hazard’s pace and agility will always attract the attention of the clumsier, more cynical, defenders. Perhaps that is why his body has told
him the time to bow out gracefully has arrived. If football was about fun for Hazard, then nursing ankle injury after ankle injury probably isn’t the future he wants to consider.
In truth, the decline has been apparent since he transferred to Real Madrid. His switch to the Spanish capital in 2019 never paid dividends for either the club or the player. Injuries, of course, took their toll but he did not always work on his fitness and the move never looked like being a success once the Covid pandemic struck. Vinicius Junior began to shine and Hazard became a peripheral figure. He made just 30 starts in La Liga during his four-year stay. The Champions’ League medal he won came as an unused substitute in the final against Liverpool after a handful of substitute appearances on the way to the final.
Both of Hazard’s parents were footballers, with his mother appearing in the Belgian Women’s First Division right up until her pregnancy with the future star made it impossible to continue. It is a football family, with all three of his siblings also playing the game.
Beyond the realms of the family, his legacy in English football is guaranteed. All those who faced him on the pitch can breathe easy once more. Few have struck more fear into defenders’ hearts than Eden Hazard.
