Real Madrid signed Eden Hazard too late

A fortune paid for a football player of almost 29 years of age. Just at the moment when physical decline start. 

There are doubts about his commitment. From carrying a very distant food routine to what has to be the feeding of an athlete. His tendency to gain weight must be counteracted with a balanced diet. Many Madrid players think that his best football was over with Chelsea. Everything indicates so. 

The polish Lewandowski suffered a knee injury that kept him two months in the dry dock. After working very hard he returned from confinement in perfect shape and a large part of the titles won this year by Bayern Munich were thanks to his contribution. The professionalism of Cristiano, Messi, Llorente and Joaquín at Betis and Navas at Sevilla, who are 38 and 34 years old respectively, is a testament to this.  

Eden Hazard began his football career in Belgium playing for local clubs such as Royal Stade Brainois and Tubize. In 2005 he went to France to play for Lille. In his first season as a professional he won the "Best Young Player of the Year" award. In the 2010 - 2011 season, he was part of the Lille team that won both the League and the Cup. 

In June 2012, Hazard signed for Chelsea with whom he won a Premier League, a League Cup and at international level a Europa League. 

In the 2018 World Cup in Russia, he was the star of the Belgian team that won third place and was awarded the Silver Ball, the second-best player of the tournament. 

In June 2019 he signed with Real Madrid, a team that had been trying to sign him for several years. A personal recommendation by Zinedine Zidane. 

In the pre-season of his first year at Real Madrid he was injured and was out for a month, plus the time he spent training to get back into shape. 

In November 19 it seemed that Eden had reached a good physical shape and he played several complete games in a row. But on November 26th, in a match against PSG, his teammate and rival in the match Thomas Meunier made a strong entry to Hazard that fractured his right ankle. He did not return to the team until mid-February 2020 where he showed great form.

But another misfortune befell the Belgian player. At the end of February, he was diagnosed with a crack in his fibula. Three months' leave. 

The confinement was allied with him as all the league games were delayed and the Champions League qualifiers were postponed. During this time Eden Hazard was treated for his injury with the aim of being at full strength for the play-off against Manchester City. 

Zidane trusted him to the point of taking him out of the starting line-up in that match, even though he knew that there were players in his position who were physically at their peak. 

In the City Eden game he went unnoticed. He played 81 minutes and the critics were overwhelming: "We played with 10", "What a hundred million thrown away", etc. 

In addition to Raphael Varane's blunders, Zidane was also criticised for fielding a player who was not one hundred per cent physically. 

After the City game, the Madrid players went on vacations. During this period, and as is routine lately, some players upload videos to social networks with their training sessions. Of particular note are the videos of Vinicius and Sergio Ramos showing a very pronounced musculature and not an ounce of fat. 

Eden Hazard joins in after the holidays with an overweight that is evident in some photographs. This situation was also experienced in the arrival to the preseason last year. 

In the middle of the preseason, during the days of very intense physical work, the call of the Belgian selection takes place to dispute the matches of the League of Nations of the UEFA. Real Madrid tries to stop their player from joining the national team arguing that he is in the middle of his preparation. Charging batteries to face the new season. The Belgian coach, the Spanish Roberto Martinez, informs Real Madrid of their intention to have the Belgian captain but will not put the player's physical condition at risk. 

We do not doubt the good faith of the coach, but the reality is that Eden Hazard lost five days of intensive training with his team to travel with his national team and not play even a minute.

The technician's explanation was: " He needs specific work. He's one hundred percent medically, but he doesn't have a rhythm yet. Eden needed individual work to start the preseason without risk. He is not ready to play 90 minutes. That was the reason. If we had two friendly matches I would have given him the opportunity to play 45 minutes and then 60 minutes. You can't do that in a competitive game. He has had a major injury. He's a player who has to be one hundred percent to perform on the field". 

Everyone can draw their own conclusions. For a coach a player has to be one hundred percent to perform on the field, for another he can play without being one hundred percent. 

If he is medically fit, but without a match rhythm, he cannot play a competitive match. But Zidane thought it was appropriate. 

The case is that the heir of Messi or Cristiano, as many considered him, can remain in a great fiasco of 100 million euros by the injuries, insufficient professionalism, a deficient management of the trainers and a bad luck.....  

Let's hope that Eden Hazard will shut the critics up, get in shape, correspond to Zidane with the confidence he has placed in him and for the good of Real Madrid and football.  

For now, in more than a year, he has not proved anything and of course he has not justified the 100 million + 30.