Eden Hazard grew up three metres from a training pitch and a hole in the fence
The Hazard family home in Braine-le-Comte was barely three metres away from a club's practice ground, and Eden and his three brothers slipped through a small gap to practise on it. Both parents had played the game. Eden went on to become Lille's youngest scorer, a Chelsea great and Belgium's captain.
Born in La Louviere in January 1991, Hazard is the eldest of four sons. His father Thierry was a semi-professional defensive midfielder, and his mother Carine played up front in Belgium's top women's division until she was three months pregnant with him; both later taught sport. Zinedine Zidane was his idol. At four he joined the local club Royal Stade Brainois, where one youth coach said he had nothing to teach the boy.
A Lille scout spotted him at a tournament while he was at Tubize, and his parents accepted a youth contract, reasoning that French facilities were better and still close to home. He signed professionally at 16 and debuted under Claude Puel in November 2007. Rudi Garcia then made him a permanent first-teamer, and his late equaliser against Auxerre in September 2008 made him the youngest goalscorer in Lille's history. That season he became the first non-French winner of Ligue 1's young player award, then the first to win it twice. Zidane personally recommended him to Real Madrid.
After 50 goals in 194 games and a league and cup double in 2010-11, he moved to Chelsea in 2012. There he won two Premier League titles, the League Cup, the FA Cup and two Europa Leagues, scoring twice in the 2019 final, and in 2015 took both the writers' and players' player of the year awards.
Real Madrid finally signed him in 2019 in a deal worth up to 150 million euros, but injuries and poor fitness limited his appearances, and he left in June 2023 before retiring four months later. For Belgium he debuted at 17, earned over 126 caps and captained the side from 2015 to 2022, leading them to third place at the 2018 World Cup, their best ever finish, where he won the Silver Ball.
Source: Eden Hazard
