Andriy Shevchenko knows a thing or two about scoring goals — some even at Stamford Bridge! — and he knows how to win a Ballon d’Or as well.
As one of the greatest strikers of the modern era, the former Chelsea striker won world football’s highest individual honor back in 2004, beating out Barcelona duo Deco and Ronaldinho on the voters’ ballots.
At the time, Shevchenko was playing for AC Milan, where he finished the 2003-04 season with 24 goals in 32 Serie A matches.
As far as Sheva’s concerned, it’s pretty simple: goals get votes.
“Why do attackers always get individual awards? Because they are responsible for finishing attacks. People like to see goals scored. Hazard is a phenomenal, fantastic player, but he wasn’t getting those 20-25 goals per season.
”This season he already has eight, so he’s on the road to that number. He has every chance of winning the Ballon d’Or.”
-Andriy Shevchenko; source: Goal
Hazard has fairly consistently scored in the mid-teens during his time at Chelsea and only once in his entire senior professional career has he broken the 20-goal plateau. He had 22 in all competitions with Lille in 2011-12.
He’s already over a third of the way there, one-fifth of the way through the season. If he keeps it up, especially as a consensus best player in England, he could indeed be in line for some strong Ballon d’Or consideration.
All this was brought up because of Hazard teasing that “maybe” that’s why he wants to move to Real Madrid, to win this individual award.
Although we know that if he moves, it will be more for reasons of fulfilling a childhood dream rather than any sort of selfish self-aggrandizement.
Still, it’s nice to hear Shevchenko, who’s currently in charge of the Ukraine national football team and also works as a pundit, help out the narrative in favor of his former team, even if he himself struggled a bit for goals during his time at Chelsea.