Former Barcelona scout explains why the club did not try to sign Eden Hazard | OneFootball

It hardly comes as a surprise to know that FC Barcelona is always on the lookout for the next big thing. For the Catalan giants, it is a rather special priority to always keep an eye out on promising young talents. Ultimately, that is exactly how Barcelona has been able to become a team that can rely so easily on their young talents as well.

However, simply because a young player is promising, does not mean that they are ready for the demands of the highest level that football has to offer. While there are countless examples of this in the football world, perhaps Eden Hazard’s time at Real Madrid offers a rather unique look into this concept.

Despite the fact that Hazard managed to become one of the most talented players in the world during his time at Chelsea, the Belgian forward’s success in London did not translate well to his time at Real Madrid after he became one of Florentino Perez’s biggest purchases for Los Blancos.

Now, in a recent interview with Què t’hi jugues, Barcelona sports coordinator Bojan Krkic Sr reveals that he had been keeping an eye on Eden Hazard since his early days even before he signed for French club Lille. However, as highlighted by AS, there were some things about the Belgian prospect that Krkic did not exactly like:

“I first saw him at the U-17 European Championship, where my son was playing. Belgium reached the final, but Spain won; Hazard played brilliantly throughout the tournament, except in the final. Later, he signed with Lille. I went to watch him play against Montpellier in August. During warm-ups, the team was all together in short sleeves, but Hazard came out in a tracksuit, separate from the group. While his teammates stretched, he was looking into the stands. He played well, but his commitment and attitude didn’t sit well with me.”

However, Krkic followed that up by stating that he continued to keep an eye on Eden Hazard, but even as time went on, he did not seem to be the right kind of player for Barcelona due to his work ethic and attitude issues despite his obvious talent:

“I saw him three days later against Angers. He was on the bench, like other starters, but while everyone warmed up, he walked around. The fitness coach told them to stretch, and he was watching the game. I marked him as ‘excluded’ in my report. Players like this, who are incredibly skilled, haven’t proven to be effective, both when I played alongside them and when scouting for Barça. My report noted exceptional quality, both technically and tactically, but I ruled him out due to attitude and personality issues, with specific examples.”

Ultimately, Real Madrid chose to take the gamble that Barcelona seemed to be unwilling to take with the Chelsea star. Unfortunately for Los Blancos, constant injury issues and a lack of consistency saw the winger fail to impress as they would have ideally liked him to do in Spain.