Football writer Alex Keble celebrates the brilliance and joyous moments of Eden Hazard's career, as we celebrate the former Chelsea winger's induction into the Premier League Hall of Fame.
It isn’t just Chelsea fans who consider the Premier League career of Eden Hazard and wonder whether he might be the most gifted footballer ever to play in the competition.
Looking back over comments made about Hazard by managers, players and pundits, one word comes up again and again. Genius.
After an outrageous 85th-minute winner against Liverpool in the EFL Cup in 2018, when Hazard jinked through four players from an innocuous position on the right, his manager Maurizio Sarri said: "He is a genius, I think. It's very difficult [to compare him to anyone else]. He's unique."
When Hazard netted his final truly great goal for Chelsea, weaving through West Ham United bodies to score another remarkable solo effort, Martin Tyler’s gut reaction on commentary summed it up: "A stroke of magic from a genius."
There are players who have scored more Premier League goals, who have won more Premier League titles, who have spent a longer portion of their career at the top of English football.
But were any of them as good as Hazard at his best?
Hazard had a Messi-like gift that captured football at its most joyful
We could focus on the 139 goals and assists across seven years of top-flight football in England, during which time Hazard created more chances (595) than anyone else.
But Hazard’s genius isn’t captured in the numbers.
Nor is it in the big-game moments for Chelsea, like scoring the winner against Crystal Palace to clinch the 2014/2015 Premier League title, netting the wonder-strike against Tottenham Hotspur that handed the 2015/16 crown to Leicester City, grabbing the only goal in the 2017/18 FA Cup final, or scoring twice in his last match for the club, a 4-1 victory over Arsenal in the 2018/19 UEFA Europa League final.
No, to understand Hazard’s genius, watch his frankly ridiculous highlights reel. It is a breath-taking array of goals and assists that serve as a reminder there was arguably nobody, bar Lionel Messi, who could match Hazard at the peak of his powers.
Watch: Eden Hazard - 2025 Hall of Fame inductee
That Messi comparison is not made lightly. The way Hazard could glide through a crowd, the fluidity of his movement, the deftness of every touch, gave him an aura; made him a dazzling footballer that caused supporters to gasp not only in clutch moments but virtually every time he got the ball.
Back in 2019, The Guardian writer Barney Ronay, reflecting on what it was like to witness Hazard in the flesh (while also staring down at a laptop, frantically trying to file copy), captured something quintessential about the Belgian.
"Best of all was the sound when Hazard took the ball," wrote Ronay. "Which was, even that close to the pitch, no sound at all. With Hazard, the ball is often silent, so soft is his touch.
"When the ball went quiet, when the crowd shifted or cooed a little in anticipation – that was when you knew, even deep into some late-night second-half copy-filing nightmare, that it was time to look up."
Hazard was other-worldly, to such an extent you could pick him out by the silence, by the anticipation of the crowd, by the way he made time stand still.
This is what football fandom is really all about - and Hazard, more than most, valued the joy in football.
"Often, a dribble brings more joy than a goal," Hazard said. "That's when the people stand up to applaud. It's part of my reflex. People want the show, they pay for it. You're an actor. So let's bring them pleasure."
Hazard was the Premier League’s best player of the 2010s
And Hazard could dribble. Across his seven years in England, between 2012 and 2019, he attempted (1,441) and completed (909) more dribbles than anyone else in the Premier League, while in Chelsea’s title-winning 2014/15 season, Hazard completed 180 dribbles, the second-highest tally ever recorded in a single campaign by Opta.
Hazard also created more chances (595) and was fouled more times (638) than any other player across those seven seasons, plus he was named Premier League Player of the Year in 2014/15 and was in the PFA Team of the Year four times.
More impressive still, he was the official Player of the Match in 62 of his 245 league games, an astonishing 25 per cent of the games he played. Only Harry Kane has won that award more in Premier League history.
Hazard's PL stats ranked, 2012-2019
| Statistic | Total | PL rank |
| Chances created | 595 | 1st |
|---|---|---|
| Dribbles attempted | 1441 | 1st |
| Dribbles completed | 909 | 1st |
| Fouled | 638 | 1st |
| Player of the Match awards | 62 | 1st |
Those numbers, along with two league titles, are a strong argument that Hazard was the best player of the 2010s.
He is certainly one of Chelsea’s greats, leaving for Real Madrid with 110 goals for the club in all competitions to put him ninth in their all-time list.
He was named Chelsea’s player of the year four times, breaking Frank Lampard’s record.
Hazard’s statistics are all the more impressive for coming just after Chelsea’s peak years, and during a time when almost every manager he played under was defensive or pragmatic, from Rafael Benitez to Jose Mourinho to Antonio Conte.
Watch: Jose Mourinho and John Terry pay tribute to Hazard
He consistently rose above that to hit the sublime, particularly over a four-year period that arguably matches any in the competition’s history.
Consider that iconic goal against Arsenal, when Francis Coquelin bounced off him midway through a half-pitch run and finish, or the 35-yard thunderbolt against Stoke City, or the magnificent slaloming run, one-two, and curled finish that broke Spurs' hearts in 2016.
All of those goals came during the four years when Hazard was at the very top, winning two league titles and peaking, in his final season, with 31 goals and assists in the Premier League, winning the Playmaker award with 15 assists.
"He is a legend at Chelsea," as Didier Drogba once said. Now, Hazard is inducted into the Hall of Fame, we can go one further: he is a legend of the Premier League era.