Eden Hazard He was one of the signings that generated the most expectations in the white fiefdom. The Belgian arrived after winning the Silver Ball in the 2018 World Cup with Belgium with which he also obtained the third place. Real Madrid paid more than one hundred million by a player who was a express request of Zinedine Zidane and that due to injuries and lack of physical fitness he was unable to show his best version that for so long positioned him among the best players in the world. The player has spoken about his time in Chamartín with Tony Chapron for Canal Plus.
Eden arrived at Madrid, two seasons after the departure of Cristiano Ronaldo. “It was not a burden to succeed Cristiano in Madrid because, in my opinion, I wasn’t there to replace him.“, he says. “It’s the media that says ‘he’s going to replace Ronaldo.’ I think I have a completely different style of play than him.“, says the Belgian.
Hazard was a very complete player on that left wing, but he was not a natural goalscorer like the Portuguese. “I couldn’t score 60 or 70 goals a year. In fact, in my entire career, I barely scored that many. So, actually, my playing style was completely different“, he reflects. At Real Madrid the Belgian could barely score seven goals in the four seasons he played.
I was going there to play like Eden, not to replace Ronaldo
“I was going there to play like Eden, not to replace Ronaldo. But, as often happens, things did not go well”, a microfracture in his ankle hampered him in his first season and since then he has not been able to find regularity on the pitch.
Eden inherited the iconic number 7 upon his arrival. Initially they gave it to Mariano Diazbut the Dominican did not hesitate to give it to him upon his arrival. However, the Belgian claims that he wanted another number. “I didn’t want number 7. I wanted Luka Modric’s number 10. I thought he was going to say ‘okay, take it’, but he didn’t give it to me“.