The astonishing cost of Hazard's cursed time at Real Madrid

FT Desk

• 25 Mar 2022 16:54 GMT
• 3 min read

When it comes to doomed transfers in the modern game, no player comes even close to the farcical nature of Eden Hazard’s move to Real Madrid.

Signed by the Spanish giants in 2019 from Chelsea for a remarkable €125 million, the Belgium international was already tasked with the unenviable task of living up to one of the highest fees ever paid for a footballer.

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That may have been a task Hazard was certainly up for matching, had he not just been through a series of serious injuries. And as we now know with the benefit of hindsight almost three years later, Madrid spent a fortune on a player that was never going to return to the dazzling winger that he once was at Stamford Bridge.

As such, Los Blancos have spent the past two and a half seasons trying to get by despite having this almighty weight around their neck in the form of a constantly injured and remarkably well paid Hazard in the background.

And when we dig into the numbers around Hazard’s time at the club, we can see just how dreadful a move that has been for all involved.

How much has Hazard cost Real Madrid?

As previously mentioned, Madrid spent no less than €124m bringing Hazard to the Spanish capital and according to reports in Spain the club have already spent around €50.7m in wages on the player.

Such figures would make sense for Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo, but in Hazard’s case we’re talking about a player that has only mustered 64 appearances over the course of two and a half seasons at the club and a grand total of 3,318 minutes of game time.

As such, that means Hazard has cost Madrid €52,652 per minute of football on the pitch, €2.68m per appearance for Los Blancos and a truly staggering €29.1m per goal since he made the move to the club in 2019.