"Madrid are a swaggering club and I'm not like that"

Belgian attacking midfielder Eden Hazard announced his retirement after failing to find another club following his release by Madrid. 

The 32-year-old endured an injury-plagued spell at Real Madrid after his 89-million-pound (103 million euros) move from Chelsea in 2019, playing just 76 matches in all competitions across four seasons.

"With Chelsea I'd 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 take'. And I let go of myself like I let go of myself every summer," he told 'L'Equipe'.

"Seven years in England, without a break at Christmas, giving everything, so when I have three or four weeks of vacation, 'don't bother me,' barbecues… all that. And that's what allowed me to reset myself to start again. Then, Real, it went wrong and that's it," he continued.

The 33-year-old also spoke about his alleged underachievement with the Spanish giants: "They say I was a slacker. But I haven't spent 16 years [as a professional] without training. The little games, the little runs, I was there.

"It's true that some mornings I arrived without sleeping well, not feeling like it, no desire, and when it's like that, I show it. Don't give me the ball. I'm making a square metre and I'm not moving! I don't move," he claimed.

Moreover, the former Belgian forward admitted that he never quite fitted in at Madrid: "I've been a Zinedine Zidane fan since I was a child. The Bernabeu, the white kit… it has a charm that others don't have. Real Madrid is special.

"Beyond that, I don't think that I fit in. It's not like me. It's a bit of a swaggering club and I'm not like that. I also didn't like the way we played if you compare it to other clubs. But it was my dream. I couldn't finish my career without coming here," he concluded.