Former Belgium Player, De Bilde: “Hazard has never worked hard”

Eden Hazard has lived a nightmare since joining Real Madrid in the summer of 2019. Injuries have completely derailed his career and left the Spanish club looking foolish to have spent €120M on a player who was out of contract the following season. In a column for Belgium based Het Laatste Nieuws, Giles De Bilde - a former player for Anderlecht and PSV, as well as a Belgium international - was unrelenting in his criticism of Hazard.

“He has spent his whole career believing that his talent alone will be enough to get him through, he’s never worked for it,” De Bilde explained. “You join the biggest club in the world, you are a record signing - knowing that you are the player who will replace Cristiano Ronaldo, and you arrive overweight. That’s Eden Hazard”.

De Bilde went on to question Hazard’s work ethic and professionalism. “Hazard never learned how to have a starting point to work from,” he emphasized. “Also, he gives the impression that he can hardly ever, or maybe never play at full throttle”.

Since Hazard signed for Real Madrid, he has seen his market value fall to a mere €40 million valuation, according to Transfermrkt. With one of the largest contracts on the team, costing Madrid a rumored ~€35-€40M per year in amortized transfer fees, bonuses, and salary, Hazard has handicapped Madrid’s ability to allocate funds for other investments. The club and the player are bound to each other and Madrid will hope that De Bilde’s comments on Hazard’s work ethic are a thing of the past. It is in the best interest of the club and the player to do everything within their control to get the Belgian back on the pitch and performing at the elite levels he is capable of producing.