Eden Hazard must win with Chelsea and Belgium to vie for Ballon d’Or
By George Perry
Chelsea are one of two Premier League teams with a pair of short-list nominees for the 2017 Ballon d’Or. Neither will come close to the award this year, and only Hazard has a chance at ever winning it.
Eden Hazard received his fourth nomination for the Ballon d’Or, while N’Golo Kante earned his second in as many years. As Chelsea players, Premier League players, non-La Liga players and players not named Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo, Hazard and Kante face a nearly insurmountable crush of history in their lifelong odds of winning the trophy. The situation is more grim for Kante, given that he is a defensive-oriented central midfielder.
Eden Hazard believes that he can win the Ballon d’Or with Chelsea. Indeed, this was a turning point in his career when he said as much last season. However, his chances of winning hinge as much on what he does away from Chelsea. Hazard has to lead Belgium to a World Cup victory next year to get a look-in at the top three Ballon d’Or contenders.
The World Cup is necessary to separate Hazard from Neymar. If Paris Saint-Germain win Ligue 1 this season and go deep in the Champions League – let alone if they win – Neymar will be the prohibitive favourite for the 2018 award.
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Neymar will receive the vast majority of the credit for such successes at PSG. Chelsea’s depth and strength as a team work against Eden Hazard. He does not benefit from the contrast as Neymar will at PSG. Therefore, Hazard needs to lift trophies for club and country to show that he is responsible for glories at both.
Manuel Neuer is the only non-forward to finish in the top-three since 2012. In that same span he is one of only two players from outside La Liga to finish in the top-three, the other being his Bayern Munich teammate Franck Ribery. Neuer finished third in Ballon d’Or voting in 2014, after he won a domestic double with Bayern Munich and the World Cup with Germany.
That is comparable to the feat Eden Hazard will have to accomplish to challenge Neymar for the Ballon d’Or. For N’Golo Kante, that may still not be enough.
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In the last decade, Neuer, Xavi and Andres Iniesta were the only non-forwards to make the final three. All three finished in third, except for the year when Iniesta and Xavi went 2-3. That was in 2010, when both players won the World Cup for Spain and still lost the Ballon d’Or to Lionel Messi.
The difficulty in quantifying a central midfielder’s role works against their Ballon d’Or prospects. While no one can deny N’Golo Kante’s importance to Chelsea and France, there are no easily digestible highlight clips or marquee statistics – like goals – showing that he is the sine qua non of his teams’ successes. In addition to their World Cup win, Xavi and Iniesta had the advantages of playing at Barcelona and being recognized leaders on the pitch. The soft-spoken Kante will not garner similar attention.
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Eden Hazard is Chelsea’s best chance – perhaps for a generation – of winning the club’s first Ballon d’Or. Even if he only succeeds in matching Frank Lampard’s 2005 second-place finish, it will be a great accomplishment for the club. However, it will raise the question if any player will ever break the apparent Premier League hoodoo around the award.