Filipe Luis on Hazard: He lacks the ambition to say 'I'm going to be the best player in the world'

Filipe Luis spent just one season at Chelsea, yet it was whilst he was at the London club that he was able to play alongside Eden Hazard.

The Brazilian left-back believes that the current Real Madrid forward could have gone on to be much better with more application.

"Eden, along with Neymar, are the best players I have ever played alongside - up there with [Lionel] Messi," Filipe Luis told the Daily Mail.

"He didn't train well. Five minutes before the game he would be playing Mario Kart in the dressing room.

"He would warm up without tying his bootlaces up. But then no one could take the ball off of him. He would dribble past three or four players and win games on his own.

"Hazard has so much talent. Perhaps he lacks a little bit of ambition to say, 'I am going to be the best player in the world,' because he could be."

It was at Atletico Madrid, not Chelsea, that Filipe Luis experienced his most success, though, and especially under Diego Simeone. However, he has explained that Simeone isn't one to have a lot of sympathy for players, and his demands can be exhausting.

"Take my word for it; it's not easy to play for Simeone," he said. "He has no heart.

"He never says to himself, 'Oh, what a pity, poor little player, I need to do this or that.' No. He will decide what he has to decide solely in order to win.

"When he took over in 2011 the team was four points off relegation and he made them Europa League winners the same season. He turned them into the monstrous side they are now. That success has one name: Diego Simeone.

"About 120 players have been though the club since he arrived. Some came as stars and didn't play; others arrived with no credibility and became stars.

"It's an enormous achievement. And he doesn't waste time, ever. He'll never do a 'ah, let's have fun today' session.

"I was a full-back lacking confidence in December when he arrived and the best left-back in the world by January. He's the only person who has managed to get that from me."

After leaving Atletico for Chelsea, where he struggled to find a place under Jose Mourinho, Filipe Luis returned to the Spanish capital.

"Simeone said to me, 'Come back, we are going to win again and I need a full-back like you,'" he said.

"I went back and played well and he said, 'See, you only play well for me. You had to come back to play well again.' He got the best out of me. He knew every centimetre of my brain."