Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho values Eden Hazard at £200million (Dh1.1bn) and says if Real Madrid wanted the Belgium playmaker, he would be among the first to know.
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Real coach Zinedine Zidane this week spoke of his admiration for Hazard, who is favourite to be crowned PFA Player of the Year tonight after a sparkling season for Chelsea.
Zidane is 24-year-old Hazard’s idol and the comments were interpreted as the beginning of a courtship designed to lure Hazard to the Bernabeu.
Asked if £100m (Dh550m) would be enough for Chelsea to part with Hazard, Mourinho said: “Plus one of their three best players. £100m each leg, because he’s very young.”
Mourinho on Hazard: “We just signed a new contract with him. We didn’t put a gun to his head. I don’t think he’s interested in going.”
— Oluwashina Okeleji (@oluwashina) April 24, 2015
The prospect of Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale, James Rodriguez or Karim Benzema moving to Stamford Bridge would appeal to Chelsea supporters, but they would not wish to lose Hazard. Mourinho, who left Real in 2013 to return to Chelsea, does not expect it to happen.
“I don’t believe (it) because they didn’t tell me,” he said. “If they want him, I think I would be the first to know, because my relationship with the president (Florentino Perez) and with the CEO (Jose Angel Sanchez) doesn’t give space for something to happen behind me.
“I trust them completely. If they want him they get on the telephone and they call me to tell me they want him.”
Hazard has scored 18 goals this season ahead of today’s trip to Arsenal, who are 10 points behind. Victory at the Emirates Stadium would see the Blues move within three points of a first Premier League title in five years.
His work ethic and willingness to play for the team has impressed Mourinho as much as his individual skill.
“We are not the kind of group that is looking for somebody to be special, for somebody to be more than the others. This is not our culture,” Mourinho said.
“He knows that he’s a special player for us and that we need him in many occasions to be decisive for us but, he’s such a normal boy that he doesn’t belong to that glamour.
“He wants to be a special player and a normal person. He’s a fantastic boy, a golden boy. He doesn’t cheat. He doesn’t dive. Nothing. So I think, even for opponents, I think he’s a fantastic kid.”
