Real Madrid announces the departure of Eden Hazard

Real Madrid announced this Saturday the departure of Eden Hazard, who arrived at the Bernabéu in the summer of 2019 and since then has been the most expensive signing in the history of the white club, more than 100 million euros paid to Chelsea. The Belgian, the highest-paid footballer in the squad, still had one more year on his contract, but the club announced his departure this summer through a text published on its website: “Real Madrid CF and Eden Hazard have reached an agreement by which the player is cut from the club as of June 30, 2023″.

The announcement of Hazard’s departure a year before his contract expired occurred on the same day as the farewells of Marco Asensio and Mariano Díaz, on the eve of Real Madrid’s last league match, this Sunday against Athletic at the Bernabéu (18.30, Movistar).

Florentino Pérez managed to hire Eden Hazard in 2019 after years of negotiations in which the Belgian conveyed that playing for Madrid was his dream since he was a child, something that he has always referred to and that sources have repeatedly confirmed. of your environment. Pérez’s first intention was to close the signing in the summer of 2018, just after the World Cup in Russia and the departure of Cristiano Ronaldo. However, despite the footballer’s wishes, the resistance of Marina Granovskaia, Chelsea’s general manager, prevented the operation from taking place at that time. It happened the following summer, when the footballer only had one year left on his contract, despite which Madrid paid the largest amount in its history for a contract, above the 100 million it paid for Gareth Bale in 2013.

The Belgian’s first steps at the Bernabéu were already complicated. He arrived out of shape and overweight and suffered early muscle problems during the slow taper process. And when he succeeded and began to look like the fantasy player who had marveled in London, his compatriot Meunier injured his right ankle in a Real Madrid-PSG match in November 2019. What at first was thought to have been a simple coup, became the moment that sank the dream of Madrid and the footballer. Hazard began to chain a very long succession of muscular and ankle problems, he underwent surgery several times, and never recovered his best level again. In Madrid he has played 76 games in four years, in which he has added seven goals and 12 assists.

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