Eden Hazard Becomes Most Expensive Footballer of the Year (So Far)
Two years ago, Brazilian football legend Neymar became the absolutely most expensive footballer in history, when the French club Paris Saint-Germain paid €222 million (N7.7 billion) to have him. Last year, the same French club paid a fabulous sum for Monaco's young striker Mbappé, turning him into the most expensive teenage football player ever to be transferred. This year's high-profile player transfers have been nowhere near these record-breaking sums but they are expensive enough to make the headlines. Among them, the most recent is Eden Hazard's leaving Premier League club Chelsea to join Spanish side Real Madrid in a €100 million euro (N3.7 billion) deal.
Eden Hazard
Eden Hazard was born in Belgium in 1991 to professional football player parents - his mother, Carine, played in Belgium's first division of women's football, while his father, Thierry, was a semi-professional player at a local second-league team. With such a background, you could've bet your life savings at Betway on young Eden Michael becoming a football player himself.
Eden has three brothers, all of whom are footballers: Thorgan plays for Borussia Mönchengladbach since 2015, Kylian also joined Chelsea, and Ethan plays at the youth academy of the local club Tubize.
Eden revealed that his idol as a youngster was French player Zinedine Zidane.
Club career
Eden started playing football at the age of four with Royal Stade Brainois before moving to Tubize. Here, he was spotted by Lille's talent scouts - this was followed by a meeting between Eden's parents and the officials of the club, and ended with Eden joining Lille on an "aspirant" contract. In 2007, Eden Hazard signed his first professional contract with Lille at the age of 16, initially at the Under-18 team, and was soon called up to the senior team just a few months into his career. In 2008, he joined the senior team permanently. During his time with Lille, he appeared in 147 league matches and scored 36 times.
In 2012, Chelsea announced that it has signed Eden Hazard in a transfer worth £32 million (N12.4 billion). During his 245 league matches, he scored 85 goals. At the same time, he became the captain of the Belgian national football team, winning the Silver Ball award at the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
Eden Hazard has become a valuable player for Chelsea - he plays as a wide midfielder and attacking midfielder. His speed, dribbling skills, passing excellence and creativity make him stand out - he was compared both by his fans and the media to legendary players like Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. He is widely considered one of the best players in the world today.
On June 7 this year, Real Madrid announced that Eden Hazard will strengthen its ranks from this summer onward. The Spanish team reportedly paid €100 million (N34.6 billion) for the player who has signed a contract with it for the next five years.
Comments
This article has 0 comment(s) , give your comment