Hazard retired too early but for good reason, says Chelsea legend Desailly

Chelsea legend Marcel Desailly believes Eden Hazard retired too soon but does not blame the Belgian for stepping away from the sport when he did.

Hazard wrote himself into history as one of the Premier League greatest ever wingers during his seven years at Stamford Bridge , in which he won two Premier League titles and was named Chelsea’s player of the season on four occasions.

But after an injury-plagued stint at Real Madrid derailed his career, Hazard retired from football in October 2023 as the age of just 32.

While some would have expected Hazard to have still be tearing up Europe’s top divisions at this age, Hazard most recently appeared alongside fellow Blues great Desailly, 57, in a Chelsea Legends game, rolling back the years against a team of Liverpool alumni.

At 23 years his senior, Desailly got to train with Hazard at Cobham before watching the winger make Stamford Bridge his own once again, with the Frenchman admiring from the substitutes bench.

And while recognising that Hazard still had football left in him, Desailly - the rock of Chelsea’s defence between 1998 and 2004 - completely supports the Belgian’s decision to bring a premature end to his career.

“I will say he retired too early, but he really retired for a good reason,” Desailly told The Independent . “The reason that the people from outside don't especially all the time understand why a player, at 34, with those millions would retire.”

“The perception of the people who love football is that football is an easy game. But for a player to retire, it means that he had enough. He cannot commit to the training, commit to the lifestyle, commit to the pressure.

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“If it (his career) had continued, he could have earned more millions, but it's not about the money. Football is the most important sport in the world. There must be a reason (to retire).”

Hazard notched just seven goals in four years at the Bernabeu, having racked up 198 goal contributions in 352 appearances during a glittering spell at Chelsea.

A litany of muscle injuries in his first season, combined with an untimely case of coronavirus, contributed to him falling out of favour under Carlo Ancelotti.

Desailly, speaking in association with OLBG, notes that Hazard was harmed by the loss of his indispensable status that he boasted at Chelsea, with fierce competition for minutes at Real preventing him from ever rediscovering his sensational form of old.

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“He was well protected at Chelsea and he did very well,” he added. “Amazing Hazard, we love him. But when he joined Real Madrid, other players are there. You need to be committed also at the training session, your lifestyle, your diet, what you drink, what you eat, the intensity of the stress.

“Probably he had enough. He realized that at Chelsea it works only on his talent. But at Madrid he had to give something extra that he was not capable to give out.”