Eden Hazard: The Dream That Turned Into A Nightmare

Eden Michael Walter Hazard born on the 7th of January 1991 grew up as a young child with a dream to dazzle the world in the famed uniform of Real Madrid.

However, at the cusp of the dream turning into reality at the age of 32 he had to abandon the club under the shadow of a horrific nightmare enfolding his footballing career as he called it quits with the club on the 3rd of June 2023.

But how did it go wrong for the Chelsea and Lille legend who was tipped to succeed Ronaldo at the Bernabeu?

Eden Hazard first burst into the limelight as a promising winger at Lille.

In his first full season, he became the first ever non-French player to win the young player of the season which he proceeded to win the following season.

In the 2010/2011 season, he guided Lille to a domestic double which earned him the Player of the Season award, the youngest player to win the award. 190 appearances and 50 goals in the summer of 2012 he packed his incredible talent to the just-crowned champions of Europe in London, by announcing himself with an incredible tweet.

And in Chelsea, he really took off dazzling the world with his incredible footwork, dribble and creativity. He entertained the Stamford Bridge faithful from the beginning to the end of his career turning the Stamford Bridge into the Garden of Eden.

While at Chelsea he was regarded as the best player to walk the league and many regard him as still the best premier league winner of all time, and you cannot blame them for that excluding his 110 goals and 81 assists.

At the pride of London, he astonished Chelsea fans and rival fans with his dribbling skills making him pass the eye test for every football fan, the only way to stop Chelsea was to stop Hazard and to stop him, Jose Mourinho, a former manager, pulled out a masterclass by sending Ander Herrera in one game to totally man mark Eden out of the game, which unsurprisingly led to Chelsea losing the game.

Trophy-wise, Eden Hazard was not short of them, winning 2 premier league titles, 2 Europa league titles, 1 league cup, and 1 FA Cup. He also bagged a bunch of individual honours at Chelsea.

He won the PFA Player of the Season in 2014/2015, he won the FWA Footballer in the Season in 2014/2015, he won the Chelsea Player of the Season on numerous occasions, he won the premier league playmaker of the Season in 2018/2019, he also won the 2018/2019 Europa league player of the season. He also won much more awards like being involved in the FIFpro and UEFA teams of the season.

While causing mayhem for his club, he was also causing mayhem for his country. He became captain of the side and led them to a third-place finish, their best finish at the World Cup.

While winning the silver ball, the award given to the second-best player of the tournament. he ended his career with 126 caps and 33 goals to his name.

Although he has called it quits for his national team, he will go down as one of the best things to come out of Belgium football, and there is no doubt in anybody’s mind about his status after the farewell he received at halftime during the last international break.

The Downhill

Then in 2019, it happened, the beginning of a 4-year dreadful nightmare at the hand of Real Madrid. Chelsea offloaded their biggest talent for a whopping 115 million Euros. He was expected to light up the Bernabeu but a succession of horrific injuries and awful management by managers dimmed the light that shone so brightly in London. Respected by all Real Madrid players, the few times he did feature for the Los Blancos you could see the king that lit up Stamford Bridge perform his magic. Even after recovering from his injuries, he was dropped to the bench even though he was promised playing time by his manager.

Although his time might have been unfortunately cut short by the termination of his career and called his national career to a halt, there is no denying that Hazard will not go down as one of the best players of our generation despite having a nightmare in the place he dreamt of the most.

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