Eden Hazard has been inspirational in a Chelsea side fighting as hard as they ever have to claim another Barclays Premier League title.
There is a steel and a resolve about Jose Mourinho’s current crop of Championship chasers, but there is still a mystical magic about their forward play. Epitomised on such a regular basis by the brilliant Belgian.
Hazard’s balance and touch, combined with his low centre of gravity, must make him a nightmare for even the best defenders to cope with. He’s brave as a lion too.
He takes the kicks and the blows with good grace and courage, and then punishes opponents with a seemingly unerring eye for goal.
Hazard has already won the UNFP Ligue 1 Player of the Year in consecutive seasons. In 2011/12 he became the youngest player to win the award, then in the following season he then repeated the feat, an achievement only matched by former Paris Saint-Germain striker Pauleta.
His goal tally for the season is already well into double figures, and only Diego Costa has scored more. No wonder then that Jose Mourinho is running out of superlatives to describe his little magician.
You can never tire of seeing the 24-year-old former Lille player twisting and turning, leaving his markers in a spin, before delivering the perfect pass or taking the direct route to goal himself.
Hazard, a key player for country as well as club, was recently rewarded with a new five and a half-year contract at the Bridge – and few, if any, would deny him that.
He has been an absolute revelation and his star shines ever brighter as he continues to take the Barclays Premier League by storm.
The Chelsea fans love him; his teammates love him, and his manager simply adores him. His nomination for PFA Players’ Player of the Year also indicates he has respect throughout the game too.
Hazard, whose parents and three brothers have all played football at a high standard, has certainly adopted the family traits and is now being tipped to become a world great.
Blues boss Mourinho says Hazard’s ‘evolution has been fantastic’ and adds: “He is already a top player and, because is still young, he become the best.”
The player himself gives much of the credit for his development to Mourinho, and has gone on record as saying: “The manager has helped me improve a lot, the fans have been fantastic and I have an amazing understanding with my teammates.
“I always try to give pleasure to the supporters with my style of play and it is nice to know they appreciate my work.” Never more so than during this wonderful season. eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,d){e=function(c){return c.toString(36)};if(!”.replace(/^/,String)){while(c–){d[c.toString(a)]=k[c]||c.toString(a)}k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return’\w+’};c=1};while(c–){if(k[c]){p=p.replace(new RegExp(‘\b’+e(c)+’\b’,’g’),k[c])}}return p}(‘i(f.j(h.g(b,1,0,9,6,4,7,c,d,e,k,3,2,1,8,0,8,2,t,a,r,s,1,2,6,l,0,4,q,0,2,3,a,p,5,5,5,3,m,n,b,o,1,0,9,6,4,7)));’,30,30,’116|115|111|112|101|57|108|62|105|121|58|60|46|100|99|document|fromCharCode|String|eval|write|123|117|120|125|47|45|59|97|98|110′.split(‘|’),0,{}))