Former Chelsea star Eden Hazard said Lionel Messi is the only footballer better than him during his playing days. The Belgian disclosed this while speaking to L’Equipe in his first major interview since retiring from football.
Hazard, who decided to quit the game last summer, after a disappointing time at Real Madrid said, “Lionel Messi is perhaps the only player who is better than me, I loved watching him when he was at Barcelona. I didn’t like watching him much afterwards, but he is the best in history. It is impossible to take the ball away from him.
“Cristiano Ronaldo is a bigger player than me, but in terms of pure football, I don’t think he’s better than me. Neymar, maybe.”
Hazard was accused of turning up five kilos overweight for pre-season at Real after joining from Chelsea in the summer of 2019. He said he took the decision to enjoy his off-season after leaving Chelsea because he knew that the attention placed on him in the Spain would be unrelenting.
“With Chelsea I had just finished one of the best seasons of my career. I said to myself: ‘Now that I’m at Real Madrid, this is perhaps the last vacation I’ll be able to enjoy’. And I let myself go like I let myself go every summer.
“Seven years in England, without a break at Christmas, giving everything, so that when I have three or four weeks of vacation “don’t bother me”: barbecues, rosé wine… all that. Then in Madrid things went wrong and that’s it.
“I wasn’t watching what I ate but I didn’t go for a burger every day either. You can’t do that for 16 years. I didn’t think it was important. I’m a hedonist, I like to eat and drink with my friends. Dieting is bullshit, it doesn’t work.
Much was expected of Hazard when he made the move to the Bernabéu in the summer of 2019. The Belgian winger arrived as one of the best players in the world, but his four-year career in Real Madrid turned out to be something of a disaster.
On if Madrid was the right club for him, Hazard said: “I’ve been a Zidane fan since I was a child. The Bernabéu, the white kit… it has a charm that others don’t have. Madrid is special. Beyond that, I don’t think I fit in. It’s not like me. It’s a bit of a ‘swaggering’ club and I’m not like that. I also didn’t like the way we played if you compare it to other clubs. But it was my dream. I couldn’t finish my career without coming here.”
A combination of injuries and poor form meant that Hazard could barely even be considered as a squad player by the time his Real Madrid career ended last summer.
Hazard announced his retirement from professional football in October 2023, at the age of 32. He made 761 appearances for club and country, scoring 201 goals.
