Eden Hazard: Messi is the only player who is better than me; Dieting is bullshit

L'Equipe had an interview with Eden Hazard, who talked about his injuries, retirement and career. Here is the full interview.

"Lionel Messi is perhaps the only player who is better than me. I loved watching him when he was at Barcelona. I didn't like watching him much afterwards, but he is the best in history. It is impossible to take the ball away from him. Cristiano Ronaldo is a bigger player than me, but in terms of pure football, I don't think he's better than me. Neymar, maybe."

"With Chelsea I had just finished one of the best seasons of my career. I said to myself: 'Now that I'm at Real Madrid, this is perhaps the last vacation I'll be able to enjoy'. And I let myself go like I let myself go every summer. Seven years in England, without a break at Christmas, giving everything, so that when I have three or four weeks of vacation "don't bother me": barbecues, rosé wine... all that. Then in Madrid things went wrong and that's it."

"I wasn't watching what I ate but I didn't go for a burger every day either. You can't do that for 16 years. I didn't think it was important. I'm a hedonist, I like to eat and drink with my friends. Dieting is bullshit, it doesn't work. 

If you want to play until you're 40, then ok, but I knew I wouldn't be like that. I always have some champagne in my fridge." 

“They say I was a lazy person. But I didn’t go 16 years without training. The little games, the little runs, I was there.

It’s true that some mornings I arrived without sleeping well, without desire, & when it’s like that, I show it. ‘Don’t give me the ball, I won’t move within a square meter’.”

Eden Hazard: "I've been a Zidane fan since I was a child. The Bernabéu, the white kit... it has a charm that others don't have. Madrid is special.