I saw a story in one of the British newspapers today that Chelsea were looking to do a swap with Real Madrid where Eden Hazard would move to La Liga and Gareth Bale would move back to the Premier League. The suggested that the deal was valued at £100m. Which made me ask the question. Is Eden Hazard worth £100m?
If we went strictly on what he did last season then the PFA Player of the Year certainly is worth that type of price tag. He netted 14 goals overall and was absolutely critical in Chelsea winning the title, creating 99 chances and providing nine assists.
In a CIES Football Observatory study last summer, reported in The Telegraph, Eden Hazard’s was the second most valuable player in the world with an estimated value of £148.9m. Only Lionel Messi at over €250m was valued more highly.
But that was then, and Hazard’s value has fallen off the cliff after a miserable season where he has remarkably failed to score for Chelsea all season.
And that lack of form has resulted in a significant decrease in hazard’s value, at least according to Football Observatory’s online transfer value calculator.
Using data from the first half of this season, Football Observatory says that Hazard’s market value has dropped to between €111m and €129m which at today’s exchange rate is around £81.8m and £95.05m.
If this research is taken at face value then since last summer, Eden Hazard’s value has dropped between £50m and £60m in the last seven months!
But even that, that would still be a world record-breaking transfer fee. Hazard, therefore, finds himself in a peculiar position of having fallen significantly in value but still holding the talent to be one of the world’s biggest signings.
Market value and actual price paid are two very different things though as Manchester United found out when they had to pay over the odds for Anthony Martial in the summer.
One thing in Chelsea’s favor is that new Real Madrid manager Zinedine Zidane is a massive fan of Hazard. Per Sky Sports, he called him “spectacular” and with reports of a potential move to Spain never going away (via the Daily Star) it seems that if he goes anywhere Madrid will be his destination. The question will be how much Zidane is prepared to pay for the struggling Belgian. Madrid have never been shy about paying above market rate for the next Galáctico.
The question is what do you do if you are Chelsea? The Blues need help on several areas but would you swap hazard for Bale or would you try and get £100m for the Belgian and then use those funds to rebuild the team?
