MADRID, 3 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The former Belgian footballer Eden Hazard has assured that although Real Madrid, where he played between 2019 and 2023, is “an arrogant club” it was his military “dream”, and has confessed that if he had had the mentality of the Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo he would have “Burned”.
“Since I was little I was a fan of Zidane. There was Zidane, so I liked Real Madrid. The Bernabéu, the white shirt, have a charm that the others don’t have. Real Madrid is special. It is an arrogant club and I am not like that. Even the way of playing didn’t suit me, compared to other clubs. But it was my dream. I couldn’t stop my career without going there,” he said in an interview for L’Equipe.
In this sense, he regretted all the injuries suffered at the white club, where he would have liked to “succeed.” “It shows that Real Madrid is bigger than everything. It’s complicated to play. Maybe I needed to train more. I also had the wrong injuries at the wrong times. The operation, the installation of the plate, the confinement… I come back, I’m in pain, I force myself… Ancelotti arrives. Good preparation, I play well. But my body, the pain, the injuries…”, he listed.
He also explained why he arrived at Real Madrid with five extra kilos. “With Chelsea I had just finished one of the best seasons of my career. I said to myself: ‘Now that I am at Real Madrid, this is perhaps the last vacation in which I will be able to…’, and I let myself go as I let myself go. every summer. Seven years in England, without a break at Christmas, giving everything, barbecues, rosé wine, all that. And that’s what allowed me to restart and start again. Then, at Real Madrid, things went wrong and that’s it. “, he expressed.
As he recognizes, football was never a job, but “a game”, and so he tried to “take it to the end.” “When it wasn’t anymore, I stopped. I knew it was my job, I made a living from it, but I wanted to get away from it,” he said, acknowledging that he could never have a mentality like Cristiano Ronaldo’s.
“It wouldn’t have been me. After a meeting, submerging yourself for an hour in cold water, no. Leave me alone, with my friends, we go home, play cards, have a beer… I play for two hours with my children in the garden, it was my recovery. If I had been like Cristiano, although there are other examples, I would have burned myself,” he confessed.
The former Belgian international joked that he was not keen on going down to defend. “I defended, but that’s not what they asked of me, otherwise I would have been defending. I laughed with Azpi -César Azpilicueta-, with Branislav -Ivanovic-, who told me “hey, you’re the one who has to run!” “But always with respect,” he recalled.
He also agreed with John Obi Mikel, who said he was “the laziest player” he had ever seen. “It’s the truth and I love what he says. I was a lazy person and then I went to training every day. I gave so much in the game that I couldn’t stand being at full speed all week. It didn’t go well with certain coaches, they told me “You don’t run in training and the young people who arrive want to do the same. Leave me alone. If they don’t want to run, don’t run. I don’t want to be an example,” he insisted.
In addition, he denied that he abused fast food during his time as a soccer player. “I didn’t pay attention to the food, but I didn’t go to McDonald’s every day. You don’t last sixteen years as a professional. I didn’t give it any importance. I’m a ‘bon vivant’, I like to eat, with friends, and have a drink. “It happened to me the day before a game, eating at home. Diet stinks, it’s useless. It’s fine if you want to play until you’re forty, but I knew that wouldn’t be my case,” he noted.
In another order of things, he described the LaLiga players as “bad.” “In the Premier it’s not bad, but they respected the game; in Spain they are bad, it’s more cruel. They step on you a little and tell you “I didn’t do it on purpose.” In France there was Souleymane Diawara, it was scary. I saw him again with Variétés, he’s nice. But in the field…”, he said.
Finally, Hazard spoke about the footballers he considers better than him. “Individually, Messi is perhaps the only one. I enjoyed watching his time at Barcelona, less towards the end, but he is the greatest in history; it is impossible to take the ball away from him. Cristiano is a bigger player than me but, in football terms pure, honestly, I don’t think so. Neymar, maybe. Afterwards, not stronger than me but, at Real Madrid you have the best: Benzema, Modric, Kroos… and Kevin -De Bruyne- breathes football,” he concluded. .
2024-02-03 14:07:14
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