a commotion. Eden was shocked and
holding his cheek. Apparently, he had
come across Franck Beria in town the
previous day and had taken the mickey
out of him in front of his wife and kids.
Franck told him that would be the last
time he disrespected him.”
Hazard also had a bust-up with
Nicolas Plestan, who revealed: “When
he was a kid, Eden would alternately
train with the seniors and the under-
21s and he had a habit of criticising the
senior pros while with the youngsters.
“One morning he went to shake my
hand and so I asked him why he was
slating me behind my back. By way of
response he just smiled. I slapped him.
I’m not proud of it but don’t regret it
either. It’s part of dressing-room life.
“He wasn’t being a team player. He’d
already had a run-in with another player.
However, he did become a real worker.
Apart from the concerns about his
behaviour – which you could put down
to his age – he was a good boy and I do
admire him a lot.”
Three factors saved Hazard at this
difficult time: his transcendent talent, his
characteristic coolness under pressure
and triple rations of ambition. Well aware
of his gifts, he had a glittering career
mapped out in his head and nothing was
ever going to divert him from that path.
“He was just 15 when he laid out his
career plans to me,” says Jean-Michel
Vandamme, the former Lille academy
chief. “He was talking of winning trophies
with us and then moving to a big foreign
club. If another youngster had said that
I would have thought he was too big for
his boots. But Eden walked the walk.”
Ex-Lille general manager Xavier
Thuilot offers a telling insight into
Hazard’s independence of spirit and
desire to adopt a step-by-step approach
to his career, stating: “In the autumn of2008, he was approaching his 18th
birthday and we’d organised a meeting
where we hoped to settle what he was
going to do next: stay at Lille or move
abroad. He arrived with a big entourage,
so much so that we had to shift the
rendezvous from my office to a
conference room.
“He was being tracked by a lot of
major clubs, including Chelsea. The
discussions began and, after a while,
Eden, sitting at the end of the table, put
his hand up and made it clear he wanted
to remain with us. His agents turned
towards him and asked him if he was
sure. He didn’t change his mind.”
Chelsea would have to wait for the
best part of four years to finally get their
man, signing him in a £32million deal in
the summer of 2012.
For Lille, bringing through the likes of
Hazard was not as straightforward as one
might think. While he did not require anyMAY 14, 2011
Wins the French Cup
as Lille beat Paris
Saint-Germain in
the Final.MAY 21, 2011
Lille clinch the
Ligue 1 title with
a 2-2 draw away
to PSG.SEP 14, 2011
Makes his
Champions League
debut in a 2-2 draw
with CSKA Moscow.Eden Hazard
Domestic battle...taking on Marseille
Debut...Claude Puel