Hazard: "I've come to Real Madrid to win the Champions League"
Eden Hazard spoke to Real Madrid TV about his desire to win the Champions League, working with his "idol" Zidane and playing for the club of his dreams.
Eden Hazard was the special guest on Real Madrid TV programme Campo de Estrellas (‘Field of Stars’) on Monday, where the Belgian admitted he wanted his "dream" move to Madrid to happen a year earlier after the World Cup in Russia.
“My dream was always to play for Real Madrid, the greatest team in the world and, so far, I'm happy. Courtois always told me that this was the best club,” explained Hazard.
“I'd already made my mind up after the World Cup and I said to myself 'I have to join Real Madrid now'. That wasn't possible and I spent another year at Chelsea and that made my departure easier.”
"I spoke to Florentino and he told me that he was waiting for me in Madrid. I also spoke to [Luka] Modric and got the impression that they all wanted to see me at Real Madrid and it finally happened."
Hazard on working with Zidane
After finally joining the club of his dreams, Hazard was delighted to find Zinedine Zidane back in charge after his shock resignation in May, 2018 and the proceeding two short spells of his successors, Julen Lopetegui and Santiago Solari. And the 28-year-old revealed how much he is enjoying working with his idol.
“For anyone in football, Zidane is a role model. He excited everyone when he played. When I was a kid, I loved him, I watched his games and wanted to watch Zidane do whatever he did, I loved everything about him,” he said.
“After he retired, I didn't think that he'd go into management so soon. However, the way things have turned out, he has ended up here and so have I. Having my idol as my manager means that learning things from him makes me happy. He's honest and talks to you when he needs to, he was a player himself and knows what us players need.”
Hazard on winning Champions League with Madrid
Of course, Zidane has lifted the Champions league trophy as a player and manager and one of Hazard’s main goals is to claim the coveted European title he could never win with Chelsea.
"As I said on my first day, for me, the Champions League is important. In London, I only once reached the semi-finals. Chelsea had won their only Champions League trophy the year before I joined,” said the Belgian international.
“They've won it a lot of times here in previous years and it's difficult to win it every season because there are many teams involved, but I've come here to win it because it's important for everyone and that goes for me too.”
Although Hazard is not suffering from Champions League tunnel vision and also has his eye on the Copa del Rey and LaLiga, a title that has been much harder to win for Los Blancos in recent seasons and the one Zidane has admitted is his number one priority.
“We're going to give our all to win the Champions League, LaLiga and the Copa del Rey. Come the end of the season, we'll have to life one, two, three or four pieces of silverware,” said the ex-Chelsea player.
“We hope to win and I hope to give the best possible account of myself, win games and for everything to go well".