THIS was final audition day for a few England aspirants, and something like that for a whizz-kid from Wallonia. Belgium came to Wembley to spar, and were useful in the role. Their most gifted individual, meanwhile, was in London with the firm conviction it will soon be his home.
Eden Hazard, 21, expects his transfer from Lille to Chelsea to be confirmed imminently. He would also know that, French Ligue 1 football not being widely broadcast in English households, yesterday was something of a potential showreel. Chelsea will be obliged to pay lavishly for Hazard. Few in France doubt their league’s Footballer of the Year in 2011 and 2012 will thrive wherever he goes, even if his outings in the Champions League as well as many of those for his country have not reached the standards of his domestic work.
Hazard had his moments yesterday — though not as many as he would have liked — that offered him the opportunity to duel with a defender, facing goal with the ball at his feet, which is something he can do thrillingly well, or to accelerate clear of the last man at the back, because he has a searing turn of pace. His 20 goals for Lille in the season just ended put him one off the top of Ligue 1’s leading goalscorers. His passes, meanwhile, set up more goals — 15 — than anybody in the same league.
Eden Hazard. The name has a ring to it, although in small-town Wallonia it would not sound, as it does to English-speakers, rather like a warning sign on a slip-road into paradise. The eldest of the four Hazard children was brought up in a family of French-speaking Belgians, all keen on football. His father Thierry played as a midfielder in the second division, while his mother, Carine, was scoring goals in the top-flight of the country’s women’s league until she retired early in her first pregnancy, in 1990. Eden was born early the next year.
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So he inherited good genes and sound advice from his parents. “It was a great help for him to have a father who knew the professional game,” says Philippe Albert, the former Belgium international and Newcastle United player, now a summariser on Belgian television. “Thierry helped Eden keep his feet on the ground when he achieved so much so young.”
Both parents are said to have approved the teenager’s move across the border, to France, because they felt the standard of youth training would be higher there. As a scholar at Lille’s academy, he was only 50 miles from the family home.
He made his debut for Lille at 16, was the French Players’ Union’s Young Player of the Year at the end of his first full season in the first-team squad, 2008-09. In spite of his small, wiry frame, a toughness had become apparent by then. He has started all but a handful of Ligue 1 matches in the past four years, which is remarkable for a specialist dribbler who earns so many free-kicks. John Terry, his likely next club captain, introduced himself very early at Wembley with a firm challenge. It startled the Belgian but he gathered his balance and kept possession.
He has known heavier collisions. “One thing you notice in the French league straight away is how physically tough it is, with a lot of big, strong players,” says Joe Cole, Hazard’s teammate at Lille. “And I saw very quickly when I arrived how special Eden was as a player.” His regularity in the Lille line-up is a counter-argument to stories that Hazard is not the most enthusiastic trainer. This is not, apparently, anything to with time-keeping or attendance, of which there have been no complaints at his club, but rather that he is not first with his hand up when the stamina-specific drills are announced.
Marc Wilmots, the Belgian caretaker coach, said he would like to see “a bit more consistency and more impact at the ends of matches.” Hazard fell out with the man whose job Wilmots has taken on a temporary basis. Georges Leekens suspended him for three games — later reduced it to one — after Hazard displayed resentment when substituted in a match against Turkey. He left the stadium, and was spotted at a fast-food joint later in the evening.
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Hazard’s start to yesterday’s contest had been lively enough, featuring a neat backheeled pass to Moussa Dembele. Ashley Cole then brought him down with a raw challenge as if, after Terry’s bruising introduction, an order had gone out among Chelsea’s senior men that if Hazard is to be a new Blue, he should arrive just black and blue enough to be clear of the hierarchical Who’s Who there.
Hazard started as the most central of the three impish Belgian strikers — his inclination later would be to drift to the outside-left position he has operated in for Lille. His strongest foot is his right. A whipped in free-kick had created Belgium’s best first-half opportunity. Aimed at Axel Witsel at the near-post, the ball dropped for Marouane Fellaini, the opportunity snuffed out by Joleon Lescott.
After that, the contest swung England’s way, though Hazard would have a chance to drive at goal and shoot, off target, close to end. He lasted 90 minutes, so no chance to sneak off early for a fast-food dinner.