REAL MADRID
John Obi Mikel: “Eden Hazard is the laziest soccer player I’ve ever seen”
Former Chelsea midfielder John Obi Mikel says Real Madrid winger Eden Hazard’s diet and attitude to training hold him back.
John Obi Mikel, who played for Chelsea for 11 seasons from 2006 to 2017, gave an interview to Dubai Eye radio station and reminisced about his time in London, where he played alongside Eden Hazard, amongst many others. The former Nigerian international, who retired from soccer in 2021, spoke about his day-to-day interactions with the Belgian attacker and wasn’t exactly complimentary: “Eden Hazard is the laziest soccer player I’ve ever seen... but on the day of the game he would win the man of the match award”.
Hazard “ate rice pudding for 20 or 30 minutes the night before a game”
Mikel admits that Hazard did not need to train at the highest level to be the best player on any given matchday but was not impressed with the ex-Belgium captain’s diet: “The night before a game, he would sit for 20 minutes or half an hour eating rice pudding after dinner. He likes his food.
And Mikel says that while there is no question that the current Real Madrid attacker has plenty of ability, he believes his former teammate could have been an even better player if he had put more effort into training to improve his game.
José Mourinho “made Mohammed Salah cry”
The Nigerian also recalled an incident between Jose Mourinho and Mohammed Salah, in which he claims that the Portuguese coach made the Egyptian cry after criticising him: “I think Salah was having a bad game. Mourinho came into the locker room and laid into him, he really attacked him. He was crying and Mourinho didn’t let him go back out on the pitch for the second half. He really went for him. It would have been easy for him to take Salah off and say ‘you’re not playing well, go, sit down, you’re not going back on the field’. But he really hurt him, it killed him.”
Mikel “doesn’t know what happened” to De Bruyne and Salah
Mikel says that Chelsea had many talented players that they failed to get the best out of: “When I look at players like Kevin De Bruyne and Mo Salah, who have gone on to become the best players in the world, it’s incredible to see. They have become physically stronger, they have become faster. I don’t know what happened to them!” he concluded.