Facts on Eden Hazard

Eden Hazard facts

Eden Hazard is a name that is familiar to a lot of tongues. A football superstar who’s climb has not even reached it’s peak. There was a lot of hype about the player when he made his move from French Club, Lille to footballing powerhouse, Chelsea and let me tell you, he has not disappointed. Playing in the Premier League, he has gelled right in, raising the club’s level of football and at the same time, wreaked havoc on opponents.

Eden Hazard was born on 7th January 1991 and is a Belgian international footballer who currently plays Chelsea in the Premier League and has also cemented his spot in the Belgium national team. Although Hazard doesn’t have a great record on his national squad, he is the highlight in most of Chelsea’s matches, charging down the wing, leaving defenders behind, sending in deadly passes or hitting the net himself on several occasions. We have all seen this diminutive beast making wonders for Chelsea, garnering respect and love from fans all over the world but there is a lot more to Eden Hazard that we have yet to see.

Personal Life

Hazard was born in the city of La Louvière, but grew up in Braine-le-Comte, a small town in the Wallonia region, a prominently French speaking region in Belgium. Coming from a footballing family, the beautiful game came naturally for him. He grew up in a family which had football in their blood and so he started playing at an young age. And look where it has gotten him now, at the age of 22, playing for one of the biggest clubs in football. In most situations, it’s usually the father who’s a former footballer and passes his knowledge to his sons, but for the Hazard Family, it was different. Both, his mother, Carine Hazard and father, Thierry Hazard were footballers in Belgium. His father spent most of his career playing at semi-professional level in the Belgian Second Division and his mother went even higher as she played as a striker in the Belgian Women’s First Division and only stopped playing when she was three months pregnant with Eden. After playing football, both parents became sports professors. Thierry retired from his position in 2009 in order to devote more time to his children.

Eden Hazard
The Hazard Family. (Probably a great 5-a-side team!)

And it was not just the Chelsea superstar that they had to teach. Hazard and his three brothers were brought up in a sheltered environment with their parents making sure that they had whatever they needed to be the best. In their own words, the family lived "no more than three meters" from a football training ground and the brothers often went onto a training pitch by crawling through a small hole to spend time honing and developing their skills. Eden Hazard is the oldest of four children. He has three brothers, and all of whom, obviously play football. His brother, Thorgan joined him in Chelsea, and is currently loaned to Borussia Mönchengladbach. Hazard’s other younger brother is Kylian, who joined White Star Bruxelles, but now plays for Zulte Waregem, and the youngest of the brood, Ethan remains in Belgium playing in the youth academy of Eden’s former club A.F.C Tubize.

The eldest is already on the highest platform of football and strives to reach even higher and the rest of the brothers all look to catch up with him. Eden Hazard is prolific in goal scoring but he also managed to score in love, marrying his childhood sweetheart Natasha. Natasha first met the Attacking midfielder when he was just 14. They started going out and their puppy-love story turned into something much more serious. They finally said their vows to each other in 2012, a year after the birth of their first son, Yannis . Since then, the Hazard Family has only gotten bigger, with one more new addition being Eden’s youngest son, Leo who was born on February 2013

Eden Hazard
Hazard with his wife, Natasha and their two sons

Style of Play

Clad in Nike Mercurial Vapor IX, Hazard lays waste to defenses on the pitch. He has grown famous for his creativity, speed, and technical ability and game intelligence. Football Pundits and commentators describe him as a “fearless, explosive attacking midfielder who can change the game with a turn of pace or a dribble”. They also use words such as “a defender’s nightmare” to describe him and his actions on the pitch definitely earn him such words.

Eden Hazard

Hazard usually plays as either an attacking midfielder or a winger. However, after his move to Chelsea, he is mostly deployed on the left flank and keeps switching flanks through the game as he can use both his feet. His ball control and dribbling are top-notch allowing him to wrong-foot defenders and leave them behind, blinking in confusion. If he finds open space in front of him, it’s his pace he uses, lightning quick, leaving everyone else behind. Hazard is not that big, but having a lower center of gravity and possessing demonic speed, he’s very difficult to dispossess. The ball being at his feet means devastating consequences for the opposing team as he can whip in dangerous crosses from the flanks, set up tight triangular passes, penetrating through balls or just take the ball the whole way himself. His finishing is high class and usually converts all his chances into goals. One of his main plays, almost his signature move nowdays, is something most have seen and are still mesmerized by it. Hazard, bolts down the left flank and just before reaching the D-Box, he cuts in to his right, and at that instant we know, we just know it’s coming. He coaxes the ball more to his right and finally sends a screamer at the post from beyond the box. Result: a magnificent goal. he has tunred whole games with this brilliant move in several occasions.

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In his own country, Belgium, Hazard's talent and similar climb up the country's football hierarchy has led him to be compared to former Belgian international Enzo Scifo. Both players even share the same birthplace and Scifo himself admitted that ‘he had a secure future when he spent time with Hazard. Hazard is also loved for having one of the rarest attributes in football now days, honesty; an intellectual honesty that is out of the ordinary and totally unexpected of today's footballers. He is one the last real competitors and he never cheats nor moans, even when brought down in the harshest tackles and fouls. Eden Hazard is young and with an array of skills that range from goal- scoring to being truthful, it looks like his journey has just begun. Here is a flame that still has to burn its brightest.

Social Profile

Eden Hazard is much loved and respected by the footballing world and its fans, and he makes it a point to reach out to his fans, thanking them for their support. He communicates through his different social profiles on Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/edenhazard, on Twitter- https://twitter.com/hazardeden10, and on Instagram- http://instagram.com/hazardeden_10 .

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Edited by Staff Editor