The Weekly Take, Issue 279: An Abrupt End to a Legendary Career

After a career spanning three clubs and almost 16 years, one of the greatest players of this era has hung it up.

On Tuesday, Real Madrid winger Eden Hazard announced his retirement via an Instagram post. At just 32 years old, Hazard is much younger than most other players would be at the time of their respective retirements. However, to say that this was an unexpected announcement would clearly be incorrect. Ever since joining Real in 2019, the Belgian had been battling a series of severe injuries which restricted him to just 76 matches over all competitions during his four years in the Spanish capital.

The fact that Hazard has gone out with a whimper rather than a bang has caused him to have become seriously underrated by many. The story of Hazard's football career goes all the way back to his time at Lille, where at just 18 he was already a regular starter. It wasn't long before Hazard established himself as more than just a promising young talent - such was the potential that Hazard showed that by 2011, a 20-year-old Hazard was hyped as a generational prospect who would be likely to become one of the all-time greats. By the end of the 2010-11 season, Hazard was already a two-time Ligue 1 Young Player of the Year as well as the Player of the Year that same season. Most importantly, he spearheaded Lille's first domestic league title in 57 years.

All of that was just a taste of what was to come. In his breakout season of 2011-12, Hazard absolutely dominated the league, scoring 20 goals en route to another Ligue 1 Player of the Year honour. That off-season, he was by far the most coveted player in any transfer window in years. Hazard eventually signed for Chelsea for what was in hindsight a remarkably low transfer fee of €35 million. To say that the expectations placed on Hazard were through the roof at this point would be a gross understatement.

Things started well for Hazard at Stamford Bridge. A PFA Young Player of the Year award in 2013-14 was followed by one of the greatest individual seasons in recent memory. Hazard put together a year for the ages to lead Chelsea to a dominant Premier League title victory. Hazard, as expected, won the Premier League Player of the Season award and even had a puncher's chance at the Ballon d'Or - a remarkable feat in the era of prime Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.

From that high point, however, things began to go sour. Chelsea would finish just 10th in the league the next season - a campaign notable for the first protracted slump of Hazard's career. Chelsea did bounce back the following season by winning the league after the addition of legendary defensive midfielder N'Golo Kanté; however, this would prove to be the outlier of the back half of Hazard's Chelsea stint. Questionable signings, unnecessary coach firings and hirings, departures of players who would go on to be stars elsewhere, and general mismanagement essentially wasted most of Hazard's last four years at Chelsea - culminating in his departure to the Bernabéu in 2019.

It was never supposed to have ended like this for Hazard. His €100 million signing by Real ought to have sealed his legacy in the modern-day pantheon once and for all. But of course, "Father Time is undefeated" - and in fact, Hazard's standout play as a youngster ended up giving Father Time a head start.

Every now again, a player comes along who puts together a tremendous career full of highlights and honours - and yet somehow still falls short of the hype. While that certainly describes Eden Michael Walter Hazard, that must also never detract from the following:

The second-greatest player to ever come out of Belgium even amidst its Golden Generation. Arguably the best to ever suit up for Chelsea. The Eden Hazard Sweepstakes of 2012. The 2014-15 season. His outstanding play at the 2018 World Cup. The countless defenders left chasing shadows behind his otherworldly dribbling and once-searing speed. And though his powers had long been diminished by then, his moment of ultimate catharsis when Real won the 2022 Champions League.

Most importantly of all, when telling the story of world football in the 2010s, Eden Hazard's name will appear again and again.