MADRID, SPAIN – MAY 13: Eden Hazard of Real Madrid looks on during the LaLiga Santander match between Real Madrid CF and Getafe CF at Estadio Santiago Bernabeu on May 13, 2023 in Madrid, Spain. (Photo by Diego Souto/Quality Sport Images/Getty Images)
Eden Hazard has explained why he turned up to Real Madrid pre-season ‘overweight’ after his big-money move from Chelsea.
The Belgian did not have the best of stints in the Spanish capital where he only made 54 appearances in LaLiga after dealing with a number of injuries.
Shortly after arriving from Chelsea in 2019, there were reports claiming Hazard reported for pre-season a stone overweight, which upset a few of the hierarchy.
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“With Chelsea I’d just finished one of the best seasons of my career,” Hazard told L’Equipe.
“I said to myself, “now that I’m at Real Madrid, this is perhaps the last vacation I’ll be able to take…”
“And I let go of myself like I let go of myself every summer. Seven years in England, without a break at Christmas, giving everything, so when I have three or four weeks of vacation, “don’t bother me,” barbecues, rosé wine… all that.
“And that’s what allowed me to reset myself to start again. Then, Real, it went wrong and that’s i”
When asked about the allegations of being lazy, “They say I was a slacker. But I haven’t spent 16 years [as a professional] without training. The little games, the little runs, I was there.
“It’s true that some mornings I arrived without sleeping well, not feeling like it, no desire, and when it’s like that, I show it.
“Don’t give me the ball. I’m making a square metre and I’m not moving! I don’t move.
“And I don’t move for an hour. An hour of tactics? “Can I go with the physio?”‘
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