"I've said to him he has got
absolutely everything. He's only 22, he has the world at his feet and with the
way he’s playing and the ability he has on the ball, he is scaring the life out
of people."
Frank
Lampard on the 22 year old Eden Hazard, March 2013
"On his day, nobody can stop
him. He has such great quality on the ball. He can create something from
nothing and this is the sign of a special player."
Thierry Henry on the 24-year-old Eden Hazard, March 2015.
Thierry Henry on the 24-year-old Eden Hazard, March 2015.
Eden Hazard is a Belgian football
player who was born in La Louviere, Belgium on 7 January 1991. His first
professional club was a French club called Lille for which he played from 2007
to 2012. Hazard’s current club is an English club which Chelsea FC. The player
is still playing for his national team Belgium. He is an attacking midfielder
& also a winger. His father also played for Belgium & following his
father, Eden started his career as for local clubs Royal Stade Brainois &
Tubize. Hazard spent two years in the club’s academy and & the age of
sixteen, he made his professional debut in November 2007.
He was born in La Louviere but he
was grew up in Braine le Comte. His mother name is Carine & father’s name
is Thierry. It is interesting to know that both mother & father were
footballers. Football is inherited to Hazard from his parents. His mother was a
forward player of in the Belgian Women’s First Division. After marriage being
pregnant with hazard, she stopped playing but his father continued to play.
Father of Hazard played mostly for
semi professional level with La Louviere with the Belgian second division. His
father’s playing position was a defensive midfielder. He is known to have 3
brothers & he is eldest son of his parents. All of his brothers are footballers,
so you can call Hazard family a football family with a team of 7 players. His
brother Thorgan Hazard also joined him in his professional club Chelsea in the
year of 2012.
Hazard began his football career
playing for hometown club Royal Stade Brainois at the age of four. During his
time at the club, one of his youth coaches described him as a
"gifted" player. He added: "He knew everything. I had nothing to
teach him". Hazard spent eight years at the club before moving to Tubize.
While at Tubize, he was spotted by a Lille scout while playing in a local
tournament with the club. The scout's subsequent report on the player prompted
club officials to meet with Hazard's father and offer the young player an
aspirant (youth) contract.
Hazard's parents accepted the offer
from Lille with hopes that the training facilities in France would be better.
Hazard's father later admitted that the decision to let Eden and, later
Thorgan, join clubs in the North of France was the best solution stating
"They remained so close to home and, at the same time, they integrated at
structures where they could grow, because in Belgium, unfortunately, it's a
little empty for the training of youth".
In 2005, he moved to France joining first
division club Lille. Hazard spent two years in the club's academy and, at
the age of 16, made his professional debut in November 2007. He went on to
become an integral part of Lille under manager Rudi Garcia, racking up over 190
appearances. In his first full season as a starter, he won the National Union
of Professional Footballers (UNFP) Young Player of the Year award becoming the
first non-French player to win the award. In the 2009–10 season, Hazard
captured the award again becoming the first player to win the award twice. He
was also named to the league's Team of the Year. In the 2010–11 season, he was
a part of the Lille team that won the league and cup double and, as a result of
his performances, was named the UNFP Ligue 1 Player of the Year becoming the
youngest player to win the award. Hazard was also given the Bravo Award by
Italian magazine Guerin Sportivo for his performances during the 2010–11
season.
On 4 June 2012, Chelsea officially
confirmed on its website that the club had agreed terms with Lille for the transfer
of Hazard. The midfielder agreed personal terms with the club and passed a
medical examination. The transfer fee was reported to be priced at £32 million.
Upon signing with Chelsea, Hazard told the club's official website "I'm
delighted to finally arrive here. It's a wonderful club and I can't wait to get
started". Hazard was given the number 17, which was previously worn by
José Bosingwa. On 12 August 2012, Hazard made his competitive debut for
Chelsea in the 2012 FA Community Shield against Manchester City, which ended in
a 3–2 defeat at Villa Park.
Hazard made his Champions League
debut for Chelsea in the team's opening group stage game against Juventus. On 6
October, he scored his second goal for Chelsea in a 4–1 win against Norwich
City. His first goal was against Newcastle united from penalty and won his side
by 2-0. During December he scored in back-to-back games, in a 5–1 win against
Leeds United in the League Cup, and an 8–0 league win against Aston Villa. On
27 April 2014, Hazard won the PFA Young Player of the Year award and finished
as the runner-up to Luis Suárez for the PFA Player of the Year award for his
fine attacking performances under José Mourinho. After Chelsea's Champions
League exit against Atlético Madrid, Hazard claimed that Chelsea are only set
up to counter-attack. Mourinho responded by saying that Hazard "is not so
mentally ready" to help his defence, blaming him for the first goal scored
by the opponents.In May 2014, Hazard was voted Chelsea's Player of the Year in
his second season at Stamford Bridge
Upon Juan Mata's departure from the
club in January 2014, Hazard was handed the number 10 shirt for Chelsea ahead
of the 2014–15 season. On 5 October, he won a penalty against Arsenal after
being fouled by Laurent Koscielny, and then converted it himself past Wojciech
Szczęsny to open a 2–0 victory which made Chelsea the last unbeaten team in the
league. In doing so, he maintained his
100% penalty record out of 16 penalties. He also became the only player in
Europe who has taken more than 15 penalties and scored all of them. Due to his
influential in the Blues' unbeaten start to the Premier League campaign, Hazard
was second in the EA Sports Player Performance Index, the official statistical
analyser of the Premier League. On 26 April Hazard was recognised
as the best player of the season among his peers, winning the PFA Player of the
Year.
Hazard has played for various
Belgian national youth teams, such as the under-17 and under-19 teams. With the
under-17 team, Hazard was a regular in the team making 17 appearances and
scoring two goals. He played with the team in the Toto Cup, a yearly
international youth tournament held in Austria and, also, played in the 2007
UEFA European Under-17 Football Championship, which Belgium hosted. In the
tournament, Hazard scored his only goal in the team's opening match against the
Netherlands converting a penalty in a 2–2 draw. The match was a homecoming for
Hazard, as it was played in Tubize, where he spent part of his youth career.Throughout
the tournament, Hazard impressed media and coaches, which led to many in
Belgium comparing him to Belgian football legend Enzo Scifo.
On 18 November 2008, Hazard was
called up to the Belgium senior team, for the first time, by manager René
Vandereycken for the team's match against Luxembourg.[citation needed] Prior to
making his national team debut with Belgium, Hazard was courted by French
Football Federation officials who sought the player to play for the France
national team as he had become eligible for French citizenship. Hazard did not
respond to the courtship and later stated "Because of my presence in
France for seven years, I feel 99% Belgian and 1% French, but the idea of
French citizenship has never crossed my mind". On 7
October 2011, nearly three years after his debut, Hazard scored his first
international goal against Kazakhstan in a 4–1 victory. He has since earned over 50 caps, and was a
member of the Belgian squad which reached the quarter-finals of the 2014 FIFA
World Cup.
Hazard primarily plays as either an
attacking midfielder or a winger and has been credited as being "possibly
the outstanding talent in Europe right now". At Lille under former manager
Rudi Garcia, Hazard often played in the latter role in the team's 4–3–3
formation and regularly switched flanks because he could use both feet.
Following the departures of fellow play-makers Yohan Cabaye and Gervinho in
2011, during the 2011–12 season, Garcia played Hazard as a central attacking
midfielder, while also allowing the player to roam back onto the wing if
necessary. Two of Hazard's most common exemplary traits are his pace and
technical ability, which have been described as "astonishing" and "mesmerizing",
respectively.
Hazard's former teammate and Lille
captain Rio Mavuba described Hazard as "a great player, with an immense
talent. He’s actually not that big, but he’s so fast. He’s also very difficult
to dispossess and his finishing is top notch". Hazard's pace coupled
with his finishing and inability to be dispossessed easily led to his former
coach Claude Puel dubbing him "little Messi", in reference to the
Barcelona star. Puel's sentiments were later echoed by former Marseille manager
and media personality Rolland Courbis who commented "At times it looks to
me like Lionel Messi on the right-hand side". Hazard's "flair and
tricky" style of play has been described as being similar to Real Madrid
star Cristiano Ronaldo; a comparison later repeated by former French
international Christophe Dugarry. His vision, described as being the trait he
has improved on the most, has allowed him to develop into an effective passer.
In Belgium, Hazard's talent and
similar ascension up the country's football hierarchy has led to comparisons to
former Belgian international Enzo Scifo.Both players share the same birthplace
and Scifo himself spent time with Hazard while he was in Tubize admitting
"Eden, you know, I've coached in Tubize. During the week, I took care of
the young people at least once, and he, in those days, I immediately saw he had
a secure future".
However, despite the positive
opinions, Hazard has endured criticism from some. In 2010, former Belgium
national team manager Georges Leekens questioned Hazard's work-rate. Lille
youth academy director Jean-Michel Vandamme countered both managers' criticism
by arguing that Hazard simply possesses an intellectual honesty that is out of
the ordinary and unexpected of today's footballer declaring "He is a real
competitor, not a cheat, nor a moaner, because you don’t hear him complaining
when he gets fouled"
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