Real Madrid’s all-time high goalscorer Cristiano Ronaldo and Barcelona ace Lionel Messi could be the reason behind Belgian star Eden Hazard’s exit from Chelsea, believes Sky Sports’ pundit Liam Rosenior.
Both Ronaldo and Messi have dominated the Ballon d’Or award in the past decade. The duo has won 10 awards between them while starring for La Liga giants Real Madrid and Barcelona.
Counted among the greatest of all time by many, both Ronaldo and Messi are now in their 30s.
Rosenior believes Hazard could look for a move to try and match their feats in Spain.
“He is an absolutely world class footballer and he’s taken it to a new level this season,” Rosenior was quoted as saying to Sky Sports.
“For Chelsea fans it’s a real shame if he does want to leave but at the same time, looking at it from his perspective, I totally understand. If you’re Eden Hazard right now, you’re saying ‘what’s next for me at Chelsea?’,” he added.
“It’s like ‘I’ve won the Premier League, I’ve done incredible things at this club, I want to be the next Messi or Ronaldo, who are both getting older’.
“‘I want to be the next one. I want to be seen in that light’, he will say, and if I’m comparing his performances to say Neymar, I know who I’m taking in my team every week and it’s Eden Hazard.
“I completely understand why he wants to go from that level, to that level,” said Rosenior.
Earlier this month Hazard had admitted that moving to Real Madrid is still his “dream”.
“Real Madrid is the best club in the world,” Hazard said. “I don’t want to lie. It is my dream since I was a kid. I was dreaming about this club.
“We will see. We will talk about my future soon. In my head, sometimes in my head I wake up in the morning and think I want to go. Sometimes I think I want to stay. It is a hard decision.
“It is my future. It is also when you have a dream and you want to make it happen. It is like I have said a lot of times, if I leave I will be happy. I know if I stay I will be happy. It is not like, if I go I am happy and if I stay that I am unhappy,” he said.
Here is the list of Ballon d’Or winners for the last 10 years:
2008 Cristiano Ronaldo
2009 Lionel Messi
2010 Lionel Messi
2011 Lionel Messi
2012 Lionel Messi
2013 Cristiano Ronaldo
2014 Cristiano Ronaldo
2015 Lionel Messi
2016 Cristiano Ronaldo
2017 Cristiano Ronaldo