Hazard sends another come-and-get-me plea to Real Madrid: “I started playing because of Zidane.”

What is the story?

Chelsea winger Eden Hazard has once again fueled speculations about his possible move to the Santiago Bernabéu. In his latest interview with a Belgian press, he admitted the fact that he started playing the beautiful game because of the Frenchman and also insisted on Zidane as his childhood “Idol”

In case you didn’t know….

The 28-year-old Belgian midfielder has been heavily linked to the La Liga giants and the speculations only intensified after the return of Zinedine Zidane as the head coach of the Los Blancos.

Hazard has been a key cog in Chelsea’s success in recent years. He played a crucial role under the previous Blues manager Antonio Conte and helped them to win their eighth Premier League title in the 2016-17 season. Since the arrival of Sarri, Hazard has been instrumental in Chelsea’s top four finish contention. He has already netted 16 times for the Blues in 30 appearances, this campaign.

This is not the first time Hazard has sent an indirect message to the Los Blancos. Earlier this week, in an interview with VTM News (via AS), he said:

"I'm not thinking about what could happen in two, three, four or five months. I don't know about my future, we'll see."

The heart of the matter…

When asked about his preferences between his national team manager, Roberto Martínez and Zinedine Zidane, the midfielder replied to RTBF, the Belgian French language public broadcaster (via AS):

"As a player, there's no comparison, I have so much respect for Zidane, he's my idol. It's thanks to him I started playing.

But for the victories we've achieved with Martínez, I'd go with Martínez".

He also denied expressing his preference between Messi and Ronaldo by saying, he would “take both”.

What’s Next?

It still remains to be seen whether he will wear the famous white shirt from the beginning of the next season or not but for now on, he has to concentrate on doing his national duty in the upcoming UEFA EURO qualifiers.