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The original was posted on /r/soccer by /u/justaregulargye on 2024-02-04 06:37:48.

“I’ve been a Zinedine Zidane fan since I was a child. The Bernabeu, the white kit… it has a charm that others don’t have. Real Madrid is special,” Hazard said.

"Beyond that, I don’t think that I fit in. It’s not like me. It’s a bit of a ‘swaggering’/‘big-headed’ club and I’m not like that.

“I also didn’t like the way we played if you compare it to other clubs. But, it was my dream. I couldn’t finish my career without coming here.”

Hazard "stressed that he “would have liked to do things my way and succeed”.

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"This shows that Madrid is bigger than anything else. It is difficult to play there. Maybe I needed to train more.”

"I also had the worst injuries at the worst times. The operation … I came back, it hurt, I forced myself. In the second season [Carlo] Ancelotti arrived. I had good preparation, I played well. But my body, the pain, the injuries…, " Hazard trailed off.

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“They say I was a slacker,” Hazard said. "But I haven’t spent 16 years [as a professional] without training. The little games, the little runs, I was there.

"It’s true that some mornings I arrived without sleeping well, not feeling like it, no desire, and when it’s like that, I show it.

"Don’t give me the ball. I’m making a square metre and I’m not moving! I don’t move.

“And I don’t move for an hour. An hour of tactics? ‘Can I go with the physio?’”

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“I’m a bon vivant, I like to eat, with friends, we have a drink,” he said.

"With Chelsea I’d just finished one of the best seasons of my career. I said to myself, ‘now that I’m at Real Madrid, this is perhaps the last vacation I’ll be able to take…’

"And I let go of myself like I let go of myself every summer. Seven years in England, without a break at Christmas, giving everything, so when I have three or four weeks of vacation, ‘don’t bother me’ barbecues, rosé wine… all that.

“And that’s what allowed me to reset myself to start again. Then, Real, it went wrong and that’s it.”

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"I felt sad for the Real fans and disappointed for them”