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chelsea Legend Marcel Desailly believes Eden Hazard Retired very early but did not blame the Belgian for his withdrawal from the game.
Hazard entered history as one of the Premier League The greatest wingers of all time during his seven years Stamford BridgeIn which he won two Premier League titles and was named Chelsea’s player of the season on four occasions.
But after suffering injury real Madrid Hazard, who had his career derailed, retired from football in October 2023 at the age of just 32.
While few would have expected Hazard to be tearing up Europe’s top divisions even at this age, Hazard recently appeared in a Chelsea Legends game alongside fellow Blues great Desailly, 57, playing against a team of Liverpool alumni.
Desailly, 23 years his senior, got the chance to train with Hazard at Cobham, before watching the winger make Stamford Bridge his own once again, while the Frenchman admired him from the substitutes’ bench.
And while acknowledging that there is still football left in Hazard, Desailly – the rock of Chelsea’s defense between 1998 and 2004 – fully supports the Belgian’s decision to end his career prematurely.
“I would say he retired too early, but he retired for a really good reason,” Desailly said. Independent“The reason is that people on the outside especially don’t understand all the time why a player with those millions would retire at the age of 34.”
“The perception that people who like football have is that football is an easy game. But for a player to retire means he has a lot on his plate. He can’t commit to training, can’t commit to the lifestyle, can’t commit to the pressure.”
“If it (his career) had continued, he could have made millions more, but it’s not about the money. Football is the most important sport in the world. There must be a reason (for retiring).”
Hazard scored just seven goals in four years at the Bernabeu, while contributing 198 goals in 352 matches during a stellar spell at Chelsea.
His first season was marred by muscle injuries as well as an undiagnosed case of coronavirus, which saw him fall out of Carlo Ancelotti’s side.
Desailly, speaking in association with OLBG, notes that while Hazard was harmed by the loss of his indispensable status that he had claimed at Chelsea, fierce competition for minutes at Real had prevented him from rediscovering his old sensational form.
“He was well protected at Chelsea and he performed very well,” he said. “Marvelous Hazard, we love him. But when he joined Real Madrid, there were other players too. You have to be committed to the training sessions, your lifestyle, your diet, what you drink, what you eat, even the intensity of the stress.
“Probably he had a lot. He realized that at Chelsea it only worked on his talent. But at Madrid he had to give something extra that he was not able to give.”