Eden Hazard is on a path to become the worst transfer in history
Paul Macdonald
- Updated: 21 Aug 2022 14:57 BST
- 4 min read
Eden Hazard was handed the ball away at Celta Vigo on Saturday night.
Real Madrid were already 4-1 up, thanks to brilliant goals from Luka Modric, Vinicius Jr and Fede Valverde, along with a Karim Benzema penalty.
Now it was Hazard's turn to place the ball on the spot. A confidence booster, something, anything, that can kickstart his career in Spain.
He stuttered in the run-up, and his kick was tame, pushed away by Agustin Marchesin. Hazard looked skyward then his shoulders dropped, and he remained hunched in the position he's been in for the entirety of time in Madrid.
When he's not injured, he's under-performing, and it's difficult to even remember how potent Hazard was at Chelsea, when he was easily one of the best players in the world.
Eden Hazard has scored 6 goals in his entire Real Madrid career. He was given a chance to score penalty last night & he missed it. Real Madrid paid €115 millions for him.
He is the worst transfer in the LaLiga history. Probably in football too but this isn't talked about. pic.twitter.com/ArmCBDXaIh— Prashant (@theprrashantt) August 21, 2022
All of that energy and vibrancy, combined with blistering pace and unmatched dribbling ability, has been sapped from him. Multiple injuries coupled with a dreadful lack of confidence have left the 31-year-old as a shadow of his former self.
From spending €100m up front for him in 2019, FT now has Hazard valued at just €14m. Including his gigantic salary - he is one of, if not the, highest earner at the club - he has been one of the most expensive mistakes in the history of the transfer market. That's how bad it has become for him.
Hazard has struggled further in the face of intense criticism from the Madrid-based media, who regularly dangle this astronomical fee in front of him, and it's reaching the point where Madrid would happily cut their losses.
Real Madrid's worst 10 transfers of all time
The problem is, however, that no club wants him. Even if salary issues could be resolved and he would take a significant pay cut, he still represents an unnecessary risk.
The sample size is now big enough to suggest that it's no longer an anomaly, but this is simply Hazard's level now, far from his peak.
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Just 28 league starts in total, and only four goals - none at all in 21/22. This penalty might've kicked off something, but instead it further solidified what we already knew - that Hazard is among the worst pieces of business Real Madrid have ever completed.
And maybe, pound for pound, the worst transfer completed by ANY major club.
