Hazard a deserving Player of the Year – but he’s not ready for Real Madrid

The Chelsea forward won the PFA Player of the Year award on Sunday, but he is not ready to follow in the footsteps of previous winners with a lucrative transfer to Spain

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COMMENT    By Greg Stobart     Follow on Twitter

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Eden Hazard’s role in Chelsea’s inevitable title triumph was recognised on Sunday when he was voted PFA Player of the Year by his peers. It was a thoroughly deserved award for the outstanding player in English football this season and the 24-year-old has the potential to one day be in contention for the Ballon D'or too.

Hazard's chances of global recognition would increase with a move to one of the giants in Spain and he appears to have captured the attention of Real Madrid judging by Zinedine Zidane’s comments last week in which he revealed he is “keeping an eye” on the forward.

The last two footballers of the year in England now play in Spain. Gareth Bale joined Real Madrid in a world record €100m million move in 2013 and Luis Suarez signed for Barcelona last summer in a €88m transfer.

Despite Zidane’s fluttering eyelids, Hazard is highly unlikely to follow in their footsteps this summer.

The Belgian has been the best player in the Premier League. His skill and guile are a joy to watch and his end product is constantly improving, with 18 goals and 14 assists in all competitions this season.

But he would not get in the team at Real Madrid or Barcelona.

Who could he displace? Not Bale or Cristiano Ronaldo. Not Suarez, Lionel Messi or Neymar.



When it comes to the elite players in world football, Hazard is the second tier and he isn’t quite ready to join the best. He has time on his side, but there is room for even more improvement and he acknowledged that himself on Sunday when he said he wants to become “the best”.

Hazard has the X Factor but there is still an element missing, a level of ruthlessness and hunger that is evident in Ronaldo, Messi and Suarez.

Even those closest to Hazard seem to recognise this. In a revealing interview with Gary Neville last October, Jose Mourinho recounted a conversation with Hazard’s father in which he spoke of his desire for his son to play with ‘a little more tenacity, mental aggression, ambition, personal ego’.

Mourinho added: “We can never transform these fantastic players and men into a competitive animal, a competitive machine. Not even his father wants [that]. We have just to bring him to a different level, working hard in training, which he’s doing.”

It is still a work in progress and while Hazard has made more and more match-winning contributions this season - most recently against Manchester United - there would be a different level of expectation and scrutiny at one of the two Spanish giants.

Look at Bale. In his short Real Madrid career he has scored three goals in three finals – the Copa del Rey, Champions League and Fifa World Club Cup – yet his role in those trophy wins is still not enough for some of the club’s supporters.



While Hazard has certainly been the best player in England this season, he’s not totally outshone the likes of Alexis Sanchez and Cesc Fabregas, two players that were cast aside by Barcelona last summer.

Having signed a five-and-a-half year contract worth €280,000-a-week in February, there are only two or three clubs on the planet that could afford to sign the former Lille man. Paris Saint-Germain could afford him but the only step up in football terms would be to join Real Madrid, Barcelona or Bayern Munich.

Zidane’s comments will worry Chelsea because when Real Madrid come knocking for the best Premier League talent – whether it’s Ronaldo, Bale or Luka Modric – they get their man. The France legend started the ball rolling for the Bale transfer with similar media comments as part of an orchestrated campaign to prize him away from White Hart Lane.

Ronaldo joined the Spanish giants at the age of 24 while Bale was 23 - but Hazard has not yet reached the heights that convinced Madrid to smash the world record on those two occasions.

Mourinho has said recently that he would not stand in a player’s way should he express a desire to leave, although that was a rather mischievous reference to Raheem Sterling’s stand-off with Liverpool.

But then he has also suggested that he would value Hazard at more than £100m (€140m).

Hazard is a wonderful, sometimes mesmerising footballer and capable of scooping all of the individual awards in English football next year, too.

One day, he may even be in the running for the Ballon D’Or.

But now is not the time. And nor is it the time for him to leave Chelsea.