Eden Hazard's retirement at 32 is a shame but he's happy at last

Last week, I went in search of Eden Hazard, ready to reveal to the world where he has been and what happens next after his Real Madrid contract was mutually terminated in the summer.

We hadn’t seen nor heard from him since and his future was unknown. I landed in Madrid to breaking news… Hazard had retired. Undeterred, I set off on his trail…

Beneath a blazing sun, a security guard strides from the shelter of his tinted-window station and belts the words, ‘Privado. Privado’. Here is the entrance to the exclusive La Finca estate on the outskirts of Madrid, residence of the city’s rich and famous, including Eden Hazard.

Private is how he likes it now, and this place offers shelter from more than just an unseasonably searing sun. A vast, scorched parkland is both the estate’s permitter and protector, and home only to thirsty pine trees and hungry squirrels. Occasionally, the peace is invaded by supercar engines, tearing towards their gated mansions.

This is where Hazard spends most of his time, leaving for the school run or to take the eldest of his four sons to train at Real Madrid’s academy. That used to be his commute, when he was a footballer. At 32, he is no more. Spend time in Madrid, and you wonder if he ever was. Here, you realise how the career of a Premier League superstar faded to near enough irrelevance. Only retirement has renewed attention on a player who, at €100m (£88m) from Chelsea, remains Real Madrid’s most expensive signing. After seven goals from 44 starts in four years, you can interpret ‘expensive’ how ever you wish.

Take a 10-minute walk on lonely sidewalks and there is a David Lloyd gym. I’m unlikely to find Hazard here, he always preferred PlayStation to weights station. There is a golf course, too, although the only footage of him ever playing was a hilarious swing and miss nearly 10 years ago on a driving range. The nearest football pitch, meanwhile, could well be the one in the back garden of Hazard’s £9.5million home. With the kids at school, he is unlikely to be there, either.

Bustle between the worldly mix of excited faces inside the Santiago Bernabeu, each paying homage and €25 to the institution that is Real Madrid, and you will notice one small face missing from the wall that charts the club’s history. There is no sign of the Belgian who, in 2019, became the club’s record buy.

In 2018, the display reveals, they signed Thibaut Courtois and Rodrygo. In 2020, the women’s team was formed. What is there to celebrate the intervening year? Nothing. A white space where, you assume, the black mark that is Hazard once was. You will find him on squad photos and celebrating the Champions League victory of 2022, his kit twinkling whiter than the others. Hazard, that night, was an unused substitute.

There is a replica of that trophy and all the others he can include on his honours list - two La Liga titles, a Copa del Rey and Spanish and UEFA Super Cups. But as Marco Ruiz writes in Madrid-based newspaper AS, ‘Hazard cannot brag about any of them’. The columnist laments the playmaker’s love of hamburgers and milkshakes, claiming that younger, more dedicated players have ‘passed Hazard like aeroplanes’.

Looking down at the Bernabeu pitch from the airplane-high vantage of the top tier, it is remarkable to consider that Hazard’s last goal here was two-and-a-half years ago, one of only three in front of his home fans. It is little wonder they have airbrushed him from memory.

The paradox, however, is that you will not find many with a bad word to say about Hazard the man. There is sympathy for his injuries and warmth for a cheeky, laid-back chap who never wanted for stardom. But this is a city, and club, that likes to celebrate its stars. Being a Galactico perhaps never was meant for him.

Leaving the Bernabeu, I walk one mile north through the faded brickwork and balconies of the high-rises and to the Asador Dohostiarra restaurant, where the wood-panelled walls are barely visible for the presence of over a thousand pictures of celebrity diners. Hazard, I am told, is among them somewhere. If so, he is tucked away.

The display at the entrance belongs to David Beckham, Ronaldo, Roberto Carlos, more David Beckham, Pierce Brosnan, Gwyneth Paltrow and Tom Cruise, with David Beckham. One of the waiters has not heard of Hazard, while another cannot remember if he ever visited. There are, I note, no hamburgers or milkshakes on the menu. Maybe this wasn’t his sort of place after all.

There is, I conclude, close to zero trace of Hazard in Madrid. In truth, there never really was.

It is nearly 7pm in the low-lit lowlands of northern France, an hour to kick-off. Suddenly, through horizontal rain, the unmistakably squat portrait of Eden Hazard is illuminated by flash bulbs, emerging from an Audi SUV in the car park of Stade de l’Epopee. Here in Calais, one week on from his retirement, he is ready to play football again.

But this is not football as he knew it. The occasion is a Varietes Club de France charity match. The opposition is a bunch of amateurs, male and female. His own team is captained by Claude Puel, at 62. His strike partner is former France star Alain Giresse, 71. Another of his team-mates is Wilfried Mbappe, 53, father of Kylian. In another world, Hazard would be playing with the younger Mbappe at Real Madrid this season.

This is football for old men and, tonight, one young man who, in theory, still has eight months to run on his contract in Madrid. Hazard does not take part in the warm-up - quelle surprise - but a media grilling awaits by the side of the pitch.

‘I’m younger than the others, so I don’t even need to warm up,’ he says, before questions rain down as hard and fast as the dark skies have emptied.

Why did you retire, Eden?

‘In life, you can't explain everything. I am at peace with myself. I am happy.’

When did you decide?

‘I had already thought about it when I retired with the national team (in December). I was coming out of a complicated period with Real. I had always said that I would stop as soon as I no longer had fun on the field. I didn't want to go play somewhere for the money. It was the best solution. I no longer enjoyed training… and I no longer played. The decision was simple.’

Have you retired too soon?

‘I think I left early, but I didn’t do it on a whim.’

What are you going to do now?

‘To enjoy life. Ride a bike, play golf, travel. Like normal people do.’

And Hazard is a normal guy, a nice guy. There is, though, a great sense of shame to all of this. The match finishes 11-2 to his team in front of a crowd of 8,000. He scores one goal and assists four. ‘Almost as much as his time at Madrid,’ remarks one Belgian journalist. The comedian who played up front with Hazard in the second half would have been proud of that.

He has existed in moments - one trademark back-heel assists Mbappe’s dad - but his turn of pace is no more than walk to canter. Couldn’t run, or wouldn’t run? It doesn’t really matter. There is no merit in analysing his performance, except to say he looked like a very good former footballer when on the ball.

Those same flash bulbs are waiting for him after the game, but their interest will soon pop and the spotlight be shone elsewhere. Hazard won’t miss them.

‘I have a flight to catch,’ he says, scurrying back towards the Audi faster than he has moved all evening.

Just quickly, did you enjoy the game?

‘It’s always nice, because it’s been a big part of my life. But I don't miss football yet. I take time for myself. I will definitely miss football one day. But I watch on TV, my sons play football, so I’ll never be far away.’

This, though, is a million miles away from where he should be.