Eden Hazard has disappeared for Real Madrid. The Belgian player, the one who earns the most in the squad, with a salary of around fifteen million per season, has gone twenty games without playing for a single minute, since he did so on January 3 in the first round of the Cup against Cacereño. Hazard has one more season left on his contract and has no intention of leaving.
This fourth season of Hazard at Real Madrid is on the way to being the worst, which is already difficult. At this point, he has only played 297 minutes spread over seven games, except for the one against Cáceres, all of them last year. What was to be his recovery season has come to nothing. His statistics reflect one goal, three shots on goal, eight ball recoveries, five fouls received and 133 passes.
When Carlo Ancelotti is asked about the Belgian's lack of opportunities, the Italian's answer is always the same: Vinícius covers his place, who is the best in the world as a left winger. At 32 years old (turned on January 7) Hazard has adapted so well to life in Madrid that he doesn't even want to hear about changing scenery. But neither does Ancelotti seem capable of finding another location for him. When at the beginning of the season he put him as a center forward to replace Benzema, he was not convinced and ended up giving the position to Rodrygo and to a lesser extent to Marco Asensio.
For two summers Madrid has been trying to transfer Hazard, convinced that it is a failed bet. Although officially 110 million was spent on the Chelsea star, in reality the signing rose to 160 million, which makes it the most expensive in the history of the white club.
An idea of the mess Madrid is in is given by Hazard's market value. According to Transfermark, the website specializing in the transfer market, Hazard's value when he arrived at Madrid in the summer of 2019 was 150 million, just one step below players like Messi, Cristiano or Neymar, and a potential Ballon winner. de Oro, according to Madrid's speech at its presentation. In the current season his value has dropped to 2.5 million.
Ballasted by injuries, Hazard's four seasons at the white club have progressively distanced him from the star that Madrid thought they were signing. Today he is the player on the squad who has played the least, with the exception of the other three missing: Odriozola (79 minutes), Vallejo (67 minutes) and Mariano (57).
Unlike Bale, who was considered very distant, Hazard has always been a highly appreciated player in the squad for his affable character. However, he never entered Real Madrid on the right foot because he showed up for his first two pre-seasons very overweight, something that the player justified because something like this had always happened to him at Chelsea and he said that in just a few training sessions he got into his fair weight.
Right now, Hazard is the subject of all kinds of criticism in the Madrid social forums, both outraged and disappointed by a player who seems to have resigned himself to his status as a substitute. The straw that broke the camel's back came on Tuesday, March 21, two days after losing the league classic in Barcelona. That day Hazard posted a photo on social networks tasting a suckling pig in the famous Segovian restaurant Casa Cándido. After a gesture like this, the Belgian's Real Madrid team is waiting for little, entrenched in what was Bale last year. But he still has a year left on his contract.
