According to Eden Hazard himself, he won’t be returning to his old club, Chelsea FC, this summer. Nor will he be moving on to any other new club. He’s saying put at Real Madrid, and making sure he establishes himself as a successful player at the Bernabeu.
He said that “it didn’t occur to me for a second” to leave Los Blancos, where he’s endured two injury-riddled seasons and an overall drop in form. After being linked with his dream move to his dream club for several summers, the Belgian superstar finally got the switch in 2019.
His time in the Spanish capital has been nightmarish, but he’s determined to get it turned around stating: “I won’t leave there as a failure.”
On May 5, when his former club knocked his current club out of the Champions League, in the semifinal round, the cameras caught the 30-year-old yukking it up and having a good time with his former Chelsea mates. It was a bad look no doubt, and Hazard made the right move in apologizing for his actions.
The incident also fueled speculation of a Stamford Bridge return, but the winger has now shot that down.
“I’m only myself when I can enjoy myself on the pitch,” Hazard said to Belgian media outlet Het Nieuwsblad.
“That hasn’t happened in the last two years at Madrid. If you have one or two injuries you can flip the switch, you recover to come back stronger, but if it’s five, six, seven it’s much more difficult mentally. But I keep going.”
Currently at the Euro 2020 with Belgium, one of the competition’s leading contenders to win it all, Eden Hazard came on in the 73′ of their dominating group stage win over Russia. Getting those minutes was extremely important for Hazard, given all the muscular injuries he’s had to battle lately.
His No. 10 shirt at Chelsea is currently occupied by Christian Pulisic. In the same interview, he addressed the episode with the players on his former club.
“That was bad, yes,” the former PFA Player of the Year said.
“What [Edouard] Mendy and [Kurt] Zouma said wasn’t even funny… If there was one game I wanted to win, it was against my former club Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. I was surprised when I saw the images. I got some phone calls [from Real Madrid teammates]. But honestly it’s a nice group of players, that’s one of the reasons I want to stay, the atmosphere is impressive.”
Eden Hazard and Belgium next take on Denmark, Thursday night in another group stage match.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank, partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” has regularly appeared in WGN, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune.
Follow him on Twitter and Instagram.