Eden Hazard targets Champions League, in no hurry to leave Chelsea

Published on: 08 December 2017

With all five English teams advancing to the Champions League knockout stage, Stevie Nicol predicts who'll go all the way. Antonio Conte speaks on the difficulty of potential round of 16 matchups, saying Chelsea will be feared just as much as Barca or PSG.

Eden Hazard says he would love to end his Chelsea career by winning the Champions League, adding he has no reason to leave the club.

The Belgium international has recovered from a broken ankle sustained late last season to return to form and has five goals and two assists in just eight top-flight starts this season, and has also found the net three times and laid on two more in six Champions League group stage appearances.

With Antonio Conte's men safely through to the knockout stages, their ambitions of emulating their 2011-12 counterparts remain intact, and Hazard is enthused -- but not obsessed -- by the idea of becoming European champion.

"It's not easy to win the Champions League," he told Onze Mondial. "Perhaps I'll never win it. Of course I would like to do it like Didier Drogba, who left after winning the Champions League. It would be great to do that. It would give me a happy ending.

"A little bit like at Lille when I left having won the treble, you see? It's really beautiful, but I'm not thinking too much about that. I just want to give my best. If I don't win the Champions League, that's just how it is, that's my story. In any case, I'll do everything to win it." 

Eden Hazard joined Chelsea from Lille in 2012.

Hazard added that he has no reason to change clubs, even if he does win the Champions League.

"I've always been like that," he said. "As long as things are going well ... When you change, it's because things aren't going well. If at work, it's going well and you're the boss, would you move? Why would you want to move? You're not going to change, are you? Also, you know everyone, you feel good, all of those things. That's what it was like at Lille. I knew everyone, it was the best.

"And when I felt I needed to change, I left. Now, at Chelsea, it's the same thing. It's my sixth year. I have my family here. My wife and children feel really good. I'm not far from Belgium so those close to me and my parents or brothers can come quite often. I'm at a big club. Almost every year I win a trophy. On the pitch, it's going really well."

Hazard will have two years left on his Chelsea deal at the end of the current campaign, but he has been regularly linked with a move away from west London, and he acknowledged any club hoping to buy him would have to pay a large transfer fee.

"For a laugh, the last time I said 300 million," the 26-year-old said when asked how much he was worth. "Now you have to pay a packet for every player. That's the problem. Me, as I have told you, I'm here for now, I'm trying to finish my year as well as possible. After that, I'll have two years on my contract. We'll see what happens."

When it was put to him that instead of joining Zinedine Zidane at Real Madrid, as often reported, the coach could instead join him at Chelsea, Hazard promised to support his appointment.

"I'll speak to the board about it, I'll see," he said with a smile. "More seriously, for the moment, we have a coach in place. It's not a 'small' coach either. It's going to be hard to move him. But the question is pertinent, I'll speak to the board about it."

Hazard's contribution to two Premier League titles, a Europa League triumph and a League Cup during his time at Chelsea has already assured his status at the club, but he hesitated to put himself in the same bracket as the likes of Drogba, John Terry, Frank Lampard and Petr Cech.

"Honestly, I'm perhaps not far off. I've been here for six years, I've scored quite a few goals," he said. "But from that to say, 'I'm the greatest player in Chelsea's history.' No, far from it. But there you go, I think I've done my time.

"I hope that if I leave one day, the fans won't forget me. I've given my all for six years. Perhaps I'll continue seven, eight years ... I don't know."

Ian is ESPN's French football correspondent. Twitter: @ian_holyman

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Source: espn.co.uk

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