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Eden Hazard is retiring from football at 32 years old and here are three major reasons for his surprise decision.
The football world was thrown into shock when Eden Hazard put an end to his football career with an unexpected statement.
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10:36 - 10.10.2023
Eden Hazard retires: Former Chelsea and Real Madrid star calls time on football career at 32
Ex-Chelsea, Real Madrid and Belgium winger Eden Hazard has announced his retirement from football.
“After 16 years and more than 700 matches played, I have decided to end my career as a professional footballer. I was able to realise my dream, I have played and had fun on many pitches around the world,” read an excerpt of his statement.
Retirements happen all the time in football but the reason this one is particularly surprising is because Hazard is only 32 years old which leads one to wonder why.
Here are three reasons why Eden Hazard is retiring from football at 32 years old.
1. Eden Hazard’s injury record
Hazard has been extremely unlucky with injuries in the last four years of his career which coincided with his £89million in June 2019.
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The Belgian winger missed 94 games due to injuries at Real Madrid and was out for a cumulative 442 days in that four-year span.
By contrast, he only missed 26 games through injuries in seven years at Chelsea where he was out injured for a total of 195 days.
The constant injuries have taken a toll on Hazard physically and mentally, significantly altering his style of play.
His retirement statement adhered to the fact that injuries played a part, "you must listen to yourself and say stop at the right time.”
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Although his injury record is alarming, it is also understandable considering Hazard’s style of play involves him holding on to the ball a lot, attracting attention and tackles from defenders as he attempts to dribble past them.
Hazard was kicked for years and stayed surprisingly durable for most of his career until he went off the rails at Real Madrid.
2. Hazard’s horrible spell at Real Madrid
Real Madrid paid £89million in June 2019 to sign Hazard from Chelsea with high hopes that he would be the new superstar of the team following the departure of Cristiano Ronaldo a year before.
Hazard racked up 21 goals and 17 assists in 52 games across all competitions in his final season at Chelsea while also winning the Europa League in 2018/19.
However, his first season at Real Madrid did not go to plan as he scored just once in 22 appearances and it all went downhill from there.
His time in Madrid was injury-riddled as earlier mentioned and he never achieved anything of note on an individual note at the club.
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In total, he played 76 games for Real Madrid, scoring seven goals and assisting 12, making for a horrid spell at the club.
That run of four bad years has understandably affected Hazard’s confidence and most likely led him to prefer retirement to another attempt at reviving his career.
3. Hazard didn’t have any real offers
As a direct result of his bad form over the last four years, it is understandable that top clubs around the world were not interested in signing Hazard, even as a free agent.
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Real Madrid reached an agreement to buy out the final year of his contract last summer, effectively rendering him clubless and making him a free agent.
However, there were no concrete links to any club during and after the transfer window, it just seemed like clubs were not interested.
It made sense that the top clubs would not want to take a chance on a 32-year-old with a bad injury record who last played his best football four years ago.
Only a handful of clubs would probably be willing to take that chance, perhaps in Hazard’s home country Belgium or most likely outside Europe entirely with the United States and the Middle East being potential destinations.
It appears none of those options really tickled Hazard’s fancy and he decided that retirement is a better option than an attempt to revive his career at a much lower level of football.
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