Chelsea legend initially wanted to join Arsenal instead | OneFootball

Retired winger and former Chelsea man Eden Hazard could have joined Arsenal many years ago, if not for his agent.

Belgium’s forward #10 Eden Hazard attends a press conference at Salwa Beach, southwest of Doha on November 29, 2022, during the Qatar 2022 World Cup football tournament. (Photo by JACK GUEZ/AFP via Getty Images)

Ex-Chelsea winger Eden Hazard called time on his professional career this week, after a few unsuccessful years with Real Madrid.

Though Hazard’s time in Spain earned him plenty of new winners’ medals, he scored just seven goals in four full seasons, making an average of 11 starts per campaign in all competitions.

Despite winning the same number of trophies with both (six), Hazard was much more successful at Chelsea, where he didn’t have a single season making fewer than 43 appearances, and he only had one season where he scored fewer than seven goals.

But the 32-year-old almost didn’t join Chelsea to begin with, as he was heavily linked with a move to Arsenal.

Speaking to the Belgian media in 2021, Hazard’s former agent John Bico revealed that his old client actually wanted the Arsenal move at first.

But Bico thought the Gunners would have given the player an environment too similar to what he already had at Lille, preventing him from reaching his potential.

“It was his number-one choice,” Bico admitted (via Sport Witness). “His father’s number-one choice too. But for me, it was a categorical refusal even when I really like this club, its history.

“At the time, there were too many young people and too many French people. It would have been a little like Lille. Eden accepted this veto. [With difficulty], but he did.

“Arsenal would have been a decision of the heart but not that of a man, even if it costs me to say that. With the environment there, I’m not sure he would have reached the same maturity as a man but also as a player.”

The time period in question was 2012, and Arsenal did have a young side back then.

The Gunners were in a cycle of developing young players before selling them on to raise funds for reinvestment, as they tried to pay off their stadium debts, and that led to difficulties when it came to competing for trophies.

But perhaps the problem was also that players like Hazard were turned away from the club by agents, towards richer clubs like Chelsea.