Chelsea have been blessed with a whole host of genuine world-class talents over the last two decades.
The midfield masterclasses of Frank Lampard, the big game goals of Didier Drogba, and the brilliant saves of Petr Cech, just to name a few.
However, there's another player who should be thought of in the same way, a player who dazzled fans week in, week out, and then earned the club a hefty payday when he left.
Eden Hazard's value at Chelsea
Chelsea completed the £32m signing of Belgian wonderkid Eden Hazard from LOSC Lille in June 2012, just a month after winning their first Champions League trophy.
The "incredible" youngster, as talent scout Jacek Kulig dubbed him, wasn't necessarily a household name in the UK at the time, but his electric form in France and invaluable contribution – 12 goals and 14 assists – to Lille's league-winning campaign in 2010/11 made him one of the hottest prospects in European football.
GK – Petr Cech
RB – Branislav Ivanovic
CB – John Terry
CB – David Luiz
LB – Ashley Cole
CM – Frank Lampard
CM – John Obi Mikel
CAM – Juan Mata
LW – Ryan Bertrand
RW – Eden Hazard
ST – Fernando Torres
There was a lot of pressure on the mercurial talent to perform at Stamford Bridge, but any concern there might have been about him crumbling under the pressure of Premier League football quickly dissipated as he finished the 2012/13 season with 13 goals and 24 assists to his name in 62 games.
Over the next seven years, the La Louvière-born wizard won two Europa Leagues, two Premier Leagues, the FA Cup, the League Cup, and the Footballer of the Year Award, all while scoring 110 goals and providing 92 assists in 352 games.
Appearances
352
Goals
110
Assists
92
Goal Involvements per Match
0.57
By every metric, the Belgian's move to Chelsea was a roaring success, although that success brought with it a lot of attention, and so, in June 2019, the Belgian superstar finally left west London to join Real Madrid in a £89m transfer that could have reached £150m with add-ons.
Now, it would usually be a disaster to lose a player of Hazard's quality, but given how the last few years have gone, his sale was just the icing on the cake in what was a brilliant transfer for Chelsea.
How Eden Hazard fared at Real Madrid
The trepidation that followed the 5 foot 9 dynamo from Lille to Chelsea in 2012 was replaced with excitement in 2019. Fans had seen what the Blues ace was capable of over the last seven years, so there was an expectation that he would explode in Spain and fill the void left by Cristiano Ronaldo in 2018.
However, things started to go wrong pretty much immediately, as he famously turned up to pre-season training considerably overweight, later admitting that "I let go of myself like I let go of myself every summer."
In his first season at the Bernabeu, the former Lille gem scored just one goal and provided seven assists in 22 appearances, as five separate injuries kept him on the sidelines for 186 days.
The following two years weren't much better for the Belgian, as he missed 174 days of action in 2020/21 and 120 days in 2021/22.
However, in his final season with Real in 2022/23, he spent only 20 days on the sidelines through injury, but by that point, his main position at the club was on the bench. He made just ten appearances across the entire season, in which he scored one goal and provided two assists.
With the writing firmly on the wall, Hazard announced his retirement from football in October 2023, and a player who had cost Real at least £89m left the club with 76 appearances, seven goals and 12 assists in what has to be their worst signing of all time.
Chelsea were rinsed by £35m flop who earned more than Palmer does
It was a move that went from bad to worse.
ByJack Salveson HolmesMar 7, 2024
On the other hand, Chelsea had turned a profit of at least £57m and offloaded a player whom talkSPORT pundit Tony Cascarino slammed for not taking "the move to Madrid seriously," and so it looks like the decision to sell him in 2019 was the right one.
