New information recent came out as to how Chelsea signed the Eden Hazard. The key part of the deal was another Chelsea legend, Didier Drogba who helped Chelsea sign the Lille forward, with a little help from his Ivory Coast teammate Gervinho.
In an interview with the Belgian media, Hazard recently revealed how Didier Drogba had convinced Hazard to sign for the Premier League club.
Drogba had called up Gervinho in the dressing room at Lille insisting he wanted to talk to Eden, and then told Eden “You have to come to Chelsea.”
Chelsea were not doing too well in the league that season and could miss out on the Champions League next season, which is why Hazard was undecided. But after the final in Munich, things started moving quickly and Hazard was convinced to sign for the London side.
Hazard stated that he knew he could easily adapt with so many French speakers at Chelsea and his Belgium teammates Lukaku and De Bruyne who were also at the club. After signing, Hazard tweeted out a single line, “I’m signing for the champions league winner”, sending Chelsea fans around the world into frenzy.
He later went on to become one of the best players to have ever played for Chelsea before signing for Real Madrid in the summer of 2019.
During his time at Chelsea, Hazard played under a series of different managers and styles and adapted to each one perfectly. There were high expectations from him after his transfer from Lille. And Hazard surpassed all those expectations, leading Chelsea to numerous trophies and racking up countless individual awards along the way. Chelsea with Hazard won two Premier League titles, the FA Cup, the Europa League trophy and the League Cup. He played over 245 times for the London club, and was the main creative outlet for the team with 54 assists and also scoring 85 goals.
Drogba in an interview last year with Goal said that Eden was a legend of the club, who had brought something to the club, with his talent, his one-on-one dribbling skills and overall match-winning ability which he hadn’t seen since Zola. He went on to heap more praise on the Belgian on how he has become more clinical with age and is in awe of his work-ethic and his expectations from himself.
Real Madrid had showed interest in the winger since the last couple of years and Hazard had earlier stated that it was “a dream” of his to play for Madrid, and finally signed for the Los Blancos last summer. Hazard’s last game for Chelsea was the Europa League final in Baku under Maruizio Sarri, where he helped thrash Arsenal 4-1 scoring two goals and ending with the perfect high note his 7 year journey at the club.
Having played his last game for the Blues last season, Hazard joined the list of the clubs all-time greats, being put into the bracket of club legends Frank Lampard, Didier Drogba and John Terry, and establishing himself as one of best players in the Premier League era.
