Highlight:
- Veteran Brazilian footballer Filipe Luis compares Eden Hazard’s natural ability with that of Lionel Messi
- Filipe Luis says Hazard could reach the top but lacks “ambition”
- He tells what Hazard would do 5 minutes before the start of the game
Filipe Luis the veteran Brazilian footballer says the Belgian star footballer Eden Hazard boasts the natural ability that of Lionel Messi but lacks the “ambition” to be the best in the world.
The former Chelsea defender revealed that the 30 year old Belgian would “be playing Mario Kart” five minutes before a big game.
Luis claims that Hazard is too laidback, and says the 30 year old – who has endured an injury-ravaged spell at Spanish giants Real Madrid – needs greater passion to stand alongside the global elite.
Talking to Daily Mail, Lui said, “Eden, along with Neymar, are the best players I have ever played alongside – up there with Messi,” who has played alongside Hazard at Stamford Bridge.
“He didn’t train well, five minutes before the game he would be playing Mario Kart in the dressing room. He would warm-up without tying his boot laces up. Then no-one could take the ball off of him. He would dribble past three or four players and win games on his own.
“Hazard has so much talent. Perhaps he lacks a little bit of ambition to say: I am going to be the best player in the world. Because he could be,” he said.
Luis has grounds to comment on the heirs to Messi’s throne as he has faced the Argentine superstar footballer on several occasions down the years for the club as well as the country.
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Luis feels that he has always fared admirably in those meetings, saying of his battles with the Barcelona superstar, “One day I would like to ask Messi what it felt like playing against me. I approached it as the most important game in my life against him because he was the best player I have seen play.
“Messi had a thing – and I studied him a lot – that was very important. He improvises. He doesn’t have the dribble in his mind before the ball gets to him. He watches the defender’s movement and depending on your body position, he goes one way or the other. So first I tried not to let him receive the ball.
“When he received with his back to me, there would be a hard challenge and because he’s so strong, so resistant, because he doesn’t go down looking for fouls, the foul is not given away.
“If he receives the ball facing you, one on one, it’s impossible because of that improvisation he has. You can’t plan for it, because he is watching you and can change. I would fake to make one challenge, one side, to try to make him go the other way, where I really wanted him.
“There were games where I went too far in terms of aggression. I was sent off, but he never had a go at me for it; he never said anything. I think he liked it, I think he liked that kind of challenge.
“In fact, Barcelona called me [towards the end of his time at Atletico] so I think he must have liked my football. I’d like to know his opinion one day. My best games were always against Messi, for sure.”