performed on match days he saw no
need to wield the big stick, at pains to
promote fun and good humour.
“On Thursdays at Lille it was a la carte,”
Hazard told L’Equipe in 2017. “It was great.
We could do what we wanted.
“I’d practice volleys with some of
the guys or stay inside. If, by chance,
someone had suggested playing cards,
I would have done that. No problem.”
Not known for his off-the ball
diligence, Hazard admitted in an interview
with France-Football earlier this year
that he can be a source of frustration
for coaches – and that’s undoubtedly
true. He can be wilful, has little appetite
for defensive duties and can go missing
when things are not going his side’s way.
A large number of bosses insist
on their artists wearing sweat-soaked
overalls. But for Hazard, that goes totally
against the grain. Risk versus reward. You
really have to accept him as he is.
His feud with Chelsea boss Jose
Mourinho during the opening months of
the 2015-16 season was a sorry saga all
round. Hazard, a leading light in Chelsea’s
conquest of the Premier League title
the previous season – so much so that
both the PFA and the Football Writers
named him the best in show – would
have expected to keep the positive
momentum going. But instead it all
messily fell apart, with Chelsea slumping,
Mourinho sniping at him for his lack of
defensive work-rate and bodily fragility,
and the Belgian star clearly sulking.
A week before Christmas 2015,
Chelsea sacked Mourinho. Not that
it seemed to give any satisfaction to
Hazard, who immediately sent the
Portuguese a text apologising for
his below-par displays.
“I don’t regret many things in my
career, but not being able to work with
Mourinho at Chelsea anymore is one
of them,” he revealed to Flemish daily
Het Laatste Nieuws. “We had a team
that could win more trophies. We just
ended up in a negative cycle.
“I sent [Mourinho] a message to say I
was sorry. I felt a little bit guilty because
I’d been player of the year. I’d been one
of the most influential players. Then I
performed less.”
His clash with Mourinho was not the
first instance of him butting heads with
an authority figure. Back in the early
summer of 2011, at the age of just 20,
he found himself in the middle of a major
national-team scandal, attacked from all
sides after a disciplinary lapse during a
Euro 2012 qualifier at home to Turkey.
Upset at being withdrawn on the
hour mark, Hazard refused the hand of
Diables Rouges coach Georges Leekens,
headed straight to the dressing room,
swiftly showered and left the stadium.
With the game still going on, he wasthen caught relish-handed at a fast-food
stall outside the ground, devouring a
burger in the company of his father and
friends. That episode led to a “Burgergate”
headline in the Belgian media.
Two anonymous national-team
insiders would subsequently claim that
Hazard was not so much punished for
sneaking off for a quarter-pounder as
mouthing obscenities at Leekens on
leaving the pitch. Apparently, a member
of the Belgian back-up staff could lip
read and turned informant after watching
TV images of Hazard’s substitution.
The trials and tribulations of
Burgergate were in marked contrast to
the acclamation which came his way on
his senior debut for Belgium in November
2008 in a friendly versus Luxembourg.
Although he had only clocked up 168
minutes of first-team action with Lille,
national coach Rene Vandereycken
was sure the then 17-year-old would
not freeze – and so it proved, coming
off the bench to give a masterclass of
technique on the move. Indeed, he
almost scored with his first attacking
foray, twisting and turning before firing
in a shot which the keeper did well to
parry at his near post.
It was an excellent start to life with the
national side, but for quite some time
that was as good as it would get. It took
him 23 appearances and almost threeAPR 27, 2014
Voted PFA Young
Player of the Year
and is runner-up
in voting for the
PFA Player of the
Year award.JUL 5, 2014
In the Belgium side
that exits the World
Cup with a 1-0 loss
to Argentina in the
quarter-finals.MAR 1, 2015
Wins the League Cup
with Chelsea as they
beat Tottenham
Hotspur 2-0 in
the Final.JUN 7, 2015
Captains his country
for the first time,
in a friendly
against France.JUL 1, 2016
Exits the Euros in
the quarter-finals
but finishes the
tournament as
joint-top assist
provider.MAY 19, 2018
His penalty is the
only goal of the
game in the FA
Cup Final against
Manchester United.Eden Hazard
Farewell...with the Europa League on his last appearance for ChelseaFeud...with
Jose Mourinho“He was just 15 when he laid out his career plans to me...if
another youngster had said that I would have thought he
was too big for his boots. But Eden walked the walk”
Jean-Michel Vandamme, former chief of the Lille academy