Eden Hazard leaves Real Madrid after four largely forgettable seasons at the Bernabeu.

Eden Hazard – Chelsea to Real Madrid

The mercurial Belgian Eden Hazard left Chelsea in 2019 for a reported €150m to join Zinedine Zidane’s European winning machine at the Bernabeu. 

With Cristiano Ronaldo gone and Karim Benzema finally stepping into the spotlight, Hazard was the perfect superstar addition to the Galacticos. Safe to say it has not worked out. 

Hazard was never this injury prone. In seven spectacular seasons at Chelsea, he missed a total of 21 games through injury. By the end of 2021, well into his third season at Real Madrid, he had already missed 61.

The 2020-21 season for Hazard was perhaps the worst season for the 32-year-old. A combination of muscular setbacks and COVID saw him miss a combined 174 days of action.

Two years into his Real Madrid career and he had taken no meaningful steps towards establishing himself at the club. Things hardly improved for him in his third season at the club. They actually got worse, even as Los Blancos won La Liga and the Champions League under Carlo Ancelotti.

After everything he’s been through it is impossible to even expect him to be in a position of mental strength. For all the resilience the winger has shown over the years, it all feels too overwhelming to continue at this point.

The hope for Hazard to return to his mind-boggling best will live on but it is probably best to accept, slowly, that it is all over. 

Eden Hazard Real Madrid