Chelsea star Eden Hazard has admitted he wanted to leave the club in the summer and revealed his dream ‘is to play in Spain’.
The Belgian attacker was the subject of heavy speculation linking him to a switch to Real Madrid after helping his nation to the semi-finals at the World Cup in Russia.
A move to the Spanish capital failed to materialise though and Hazard continued at Stamford Bridge under new manager Maurizio Sarri.
Now though Hazard has revealed he came extremely close to leaving the club but insists he is more than happy to stay put in the future.
‘I will tell you the truth. After the World Cup I wanted to leave because my dream is to play in Spain,’ he told BT Sport.
‘Then I spoke to the board and the manager and I said “I can stay no problem”. The new manager has come in and we are enjoying playing with him and I’m happy I stayed. I’ve got three years on my contract left.
Asked if he can envisage spending the rest of career at Stamford Bridge, Hazard replied: ‘Yes for sure, but also the possibility is that I can leave also. I love the club, the fans, the city and my team-mates, I think, love me so it’s easy to stay. But if I leave or if I stay I will be happy. This club is now part of my life so we will see.’
Chelsea have made an impressive start under Sarri, the former Napoli manager. The Blues are unbeaten in the Premier League and knocked Liverpool out of the Carabao Cup in midweek.
Hazard believes Sarri is ‘one of the best managers in the world’ and hailed his impact on the team so far.
‘We have a good dressing room. There is not a lot of egos so to come here it is easy,’ he added.
‘He is one of the best managers in the world. He just asked me to score goals. I will try to score 20 and then maybe we can improve.’