Chelsea’s rebuilding grows with £78m Eden Hazard signing
Eden Hazard announced on Monday night that he is joining Chelsea as Roman Abramovich took another decisive step in his rebuilding of the squad that won the Champions League.
Chelsea have beaten off competition from Manchester City — who had been clear favourites to sign the exciting Belgium international but grew frustrated at the negotiations — Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur after becoming the only club who would go close to meeting the forward’s demands.
City are thought to have walked away from the deal last week with Spurs giving up some time ago. Hazard, currently on international duty and preparing to face England in a friendly this weekend, indicated to Chelsea on Saturday that he was set to accept their offer and yesterday took to the social media site Twitter to announce that he had “made up my mind”, adding last night: “I’m signing for the Champions League winner.”
Chelsea will pay a fee of around €40 million (£35.3 million) to Lille, with Hazard having demanded wages of £4.6 million a year net of tax, so around £9 million a year for his new employer. That averages out at £170,000 a week.
In addition his agent, John Bico, who has conducted an aggressive auction has made it clear that he wants a fee of £6 million.
If all the demands are met and with Hazard expected to agree a five-year deal, it means the overall cost of the signing, fees and contract will amount to around £78 million which, even by Chelsea standards, is a substantial investment.