Eden Hazard drops major hint over whether he'll be at Chelsea next season

Eden Hazard has hinted that he will leave Chelsea to join Real Madrid this summer.

The Belgium international has been heavily linked with a move to the Spanish capital ahead of next season, with rumours intensifying after Zinedine Zidane returned to the Madrid hot seat earlier this month.

Zidane has reportedly been handed a war chest of at least £300m as Los Blancos seek a squad overhaul, and Hazard is one of his leading targets.

The former Lille forward has won two Premier League titles at Stamford Bridge, but the Blues’ struggles this season have pushed him closer to the exit.

And Hazard has now dropped his biggest hint yet that he will be seeking pastures new in the coming months during a conversation with a Belgian journalist.

“I have a friend who’s played in the Premier League for seven years now,” a reporter from Het Laatste Nieuws said. “At a club that plays in blue. He’s won everything and is ready for a new challenge. He’s now attracting the interest of another club, one in white. What would you recommend?”

“Buy that friend a white shirt,” Hazard replied.

Chelsea remain sixth in the Premier League table after Sunday’s 2-0 defeat by Everton at Goodison Park.

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Greg Lea

Greg Lea is a freelance football journalist who's filled in wherever FourFourTwo needs him since 2014. He became a Crystal Palace fan after watching a 1-0 loss to Port Vale in 1998, and once got on the scoresheet in a primary school game against Wilfried Zaha's Whitehorse Manor (an own goal in an 8-0 defeat).