Real Madrid following ‘Courtois plan’ to lure Eden Hazard from Chelsea

Eden Hazard‘s move to Real Madrid has been dubbed the ‘Courtois Plan’ in Spain with the player running down his contract under assurances from the Spanish club that they will do everything they can to make a transfer happen.

Madrid know it will take more than the £35million they paid to bring in Thibaut Courtois but are also confident that for a player in the final year of his contract as Hazard will be next summer, they will not have to pay £100m to bring in the 28-year-old Belgium international.

Madrid will want to negotiate. And just as Mateo Kovacic signed on loan for Chelsea last summer just as Courtois made the move in the opposite direction so this time players such as Isco and even Marco Asensio could be on the bargaining table.

How Eden Hazard would look in a Real Madrid shirt as his move there grows increasingly likely

Real Madrid are willing to pay Chelsea £100m to bring Belgian star Eden Hazard to Spain

Real’s pursuit of Hazard could easily follow their plan to sign Chelsea keeper Thibaut Courtois

Madrid’s interest in Hazard goes back to 2017 when it was suggested the player was shown around the club’s Valdebebas training ground ahead of a possible move. 

Kylian Mbappe eventually replaced Hazard as the priority for Real Madrid. As Football Leaks claimed a year later, they bid €180m for the player that summer only to then see him move to Paris Saint-Germain.

In 2018, Hazard was again the target but it was made clear to Real Madrid that with the Neymar to PSG and subsequent Ousmane Dembele and Philippe Coutinho to Barcelona deals still fresh in the memory Chelsea would not discuss a sale for anything less than €200m.

This summer, Hazard’s contract situation will be different. His on-going public shows of affection towards Madrid and Madrid’s private openness to signing him all point to the saga reaching its conclusion in 2019.

Isco could be one of the Real players on the bargaining table if Chelsea did their heels in

Marco Asensio could be another play Real are willing to part with to sign Hazard in the summer

As ever, Madrid’s summer plans will be at the mercy of how their season ends. The post-season expenditure will increase in line with how badly they do. Their season was heading for meltdown before the end of the year.

But they are still in three competitions and have been revived by Santiago Solari. 

Regardless of how trophy-laden they finish the year they will prioritise the signing of Hazard. He will not be edged out by a move for Neymar as he was in 2017 by the desire to sign Mbappe.

That does not mean Madrid will not then subsequently move for Neymar too if their predicament demands it and they continue to believe he can be brought back to Spain for little over €200m.

For Hazard life at Madrid will be very different to life at Chelsea. The 18-year-old Brazilian Vinicius Junior has been outstanding this season in Hazard’s favoured left-sided forward berth. 

The Belgian would have to fight for his place and even more so if Madrid also signed Neymar and kept Gareth Bale who for all the campaigns in favour of his sale has a contract until 2022.

He will also have to get used to not being the biggest draw in the squad. 

Hazard would face competition for his place from Real’s young Brazilian star Vinicius Junior

Gareth Bale remains a part of the Real attack and has a Bernabeu contract until 2022

While his interview with RMC made the back-pages in England it was barely picked up in Spain as Real Madrid’s Copa del Rey semi-final with Barcelona took centre-stage and dominated all media on Wednesday morning.

That is unlikely to put Hazard off the move. He admitted ‘My father always told me that I’m too selfless and maybe it’s true,’ the Belgian international said in the build up to last season’s Cup Final. 

That kind of willingness to take a back seat will not necessarily count against him.

He will still be considered a Galatico signing however and the first one since Gareth Bale arrived in 2013. And if Chelsea do squeeze £100m out of Real Madrid then he would immediately become the club’s record signing, at least until they move for Neymar.

Signing Hazard would not necessarily deter Real from making a mega-money bid for Neymar

And Perez will present him as such making plenty out of the fact that it has ‘always been Hazard’s dream’ to play for Real Madrid since he was a kid marvelling at the pirouettes of Zinedine Zidane.

Zidane was the coach who most petitioned for Hazard to be signed. He has not stayed around long enough to manage one of his favourite players but as Hazard has already said Zidane’s absence does not make Madrid any less of a prospect for him.

And if he does arrive in the Spanish capital then Courtois will at least help his integration. The two have remained in contact through the ups and downs of this season. 

When the keeper moved to Madrid last summer he said: ‘If he (Hazard) comes to the club then I will be very happy because he is my friend.’