Eden Hazard has officially announced his immediate retirement from all forms of football on Tuesday morning, at the age of just 32-years-old.
The former Chelsea winger left Real Madrid in June after he and the club agreed to mutually terminate his contract with the 14-time European champions.
Hazard, born in La Louviere in Belgium, played youth football with Royale Stade Brainois, AFC Tubize and Lille before beginning his professional career in the Lille II side. After one season there, he made his first-team debut in 2007 and was crucial to their remarkable domestic double in 2011, winning both Ligue 1 and the Coupe de France.
In 2012, he joined the then European champions Chelsea for a fee believed to be around £32 million. In seven seasons with The Blues, Hazard earned a reputation for being one of, if not the, best played in the Premier League, winning the league title twice. He also won an FA Cup, EFL Cup and two UEFA Europa League trophies.
He moved to Spanish giants Real Madrid in 2019 but after a pre-season in which he admitted himself he had arrived at the club ‘out of shape’. He won two La Liga titles, a Copa del Rey, Supercopa de Espana, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup with Los Blancos but managed just 76 appearances across all competitions in four seasons with the club.
Internationally, Hazard captained the Belgian national team at UEFA Euro 2016, 2018 FIFA World Cup, UEFA Euro 2020 and the 2022 FIFA World Cup, instrumental as they reached the semi-finals of the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, losing to eventual winners France by a goal to nil. He scored 33 goals in 126 caps for ‘The Red Devils’.
Individually, he won Ligue 1 Player of the Year on two occasions as well as the Premier League equivalent in 2015. He was the Football Writers’ Association Football of the Year in 2015 and also PFA Players’ Player of the Year in 2015 as well as PFA Fans’ Player of the Year in 2019.
