The Belgium international has been backed to continue his improvement by his old team-mate
Former Chelsea captain John Terry believes Eden Hazard still has room for improvement but merits being ranked alongside Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.
The 27-year-old has enjoyed a stellar start to the new campaign, scoring five goals in six appearances for Maurizio Sarri's Blues.
Hazard's impressive run of form follows him winning the Silver Ball award at the World Cup as Belgium finished third in Russia.
To further underline his recent form, the Chelsea star was named in the FIFPro team of the year ahead of Liverpool's Mohamed Salah
But the former Lille winger continues to divide opinion having been unable to show the same consistency as Ronaldo or Messi, although Terry feels he deserves to be ranked among the illustrious duo.
"A couple of people recently are coming out and saying he's not kind of the finished article," the ex-England skipper, who played with Hazard for five years at Stamford Bridge, told AS .
"But believe me he really is and he's up there with Messi and Ronaldo without a shadow of a doubt.
"I've seen him day in, day out for the last five/six years and he's a top, top player and he will only get better as well."
Sarri may have only arrived at Chelsea in the summer after replacing Antonio Conte but he is already convinced Hazard is the best player in Europe.
"I thought that Hazard was one of the best players in Europe but now I change my mind," he said after Hazard scored a hat-trick in the 4-1 win over Cardiff City earlier this month.
"Maybe he is the best and he can improve more."
Hazard is likely to have another chance to impress as Chelsea begin their Carabao Cup campaign against Liverpool at Anfield on Wednesday.
preciousgeoffrey59
97
Indeed hitting top form for both club and country is just magnificent and no doubt the best in EPL but despite being his fan I still believe he needs more goals and at least 3 straight good season like this to belong to Messi and Ronaldo's category and he seems to be on the right track at the moment
auwalrogo
83
The media and whole world are desperately looking for somebody that can break messi-Ronaldo duopoly, but couldn't succeed as there's non to be compared to them as far as football is conserned. They tried using players like modric, Mbappe, salah and even Griezmann but failed. Now they wanna use Hazard but they will still fail, as he's nowhere close to their class. Nobody is close to their league. Messi and Ronaldo are above all, at 27 both of them won multiful balon d'Ors and champions Leagues. Let him win CL first before u guys start bringing him in their class
Jhoxua11
41
Hazard needs show up in Europa League and win I'd for the team if possible to lit up his confidence that's the first step
AryanSharma
33
I think nowadays it seems everyone is on the level of messi and ronaldo greizman said he is of same level now hazard is of same level after sometime they'll say neymar and mbaape is at that level luka is that level Footballing world needs to understand that Messi and Ronaldo are top of everyone Just by winning world cup or performing in one season doesn't give any player their position they are ruling for 10 years And messi is GOAT and he'll break pele's 1 club top scorer's record for sure