"I would never play just for money", Hazard explained the reasons for his retirement

Eden Hazard was during the last decade one of the most respected players in the world. His excellent performances at Chelsea made him one of the Premier League stars, while with the Belgium National Team he shone at the Russia 2018 World Cup, where they reached the semifinals. This allowed him to arrive at Real Madrid in 2019 in exchange for $160 million.

But in Spain things did not go as expected. He suffered injuries that prevented him from playing regularly and that affected his performance. And when he recovered it was too late: other players like Vinicius Junior and Rodrygo Goes had already earned a place in the team. That is why this summer he agreed to terminate his contract and became a free agent. But none of the offers he received motivated him to start a new stage and so he decided to end his professional career at the age of 32.

This week he took part in a charity match in Calais, France, together with other former players such as Ludovic Giuly, Robert Pires, Didier Deschamps, Christian Karembeu, Laurent Blanc and Jens Lehmann. There he stood out, providing several assists and demonstrating his quality.

After the match he spoke to the press and was asked about his decision to retire. His answer was: "Last season was complicated and when I left the national team I had already thought it all out; I no longer enjoyed going to training and the less I played the more complicated it became. It's never easy to make a decision like that, but I'm not going to say it was difficult either; it's something I had thought about a lot, I had the support of people who know me and who know that I really want to do other things with my life outside of soccer".

Not motivated by money

Hazard also spoke about why he turned down multi-million dollar offers from Major League Soccer and Saudi Arabia: "I wouldn't play anywhere for money, I'm 32 years old and I have a whole life ahead of me to enjoy away from the pitch".