The six players Real Madrid signed alongside Hazard & how they fared

When Eden Hazard signed for Real Madrid in 2019, it was believed he was the Galactico replacement for Cristiano Ronaldo that Real had been searching for.

For seven years he had been the star man at Stamford Bridge for Chelsea, winning two Premier Leagues, an FA Cups and two Europa Leagues. But with Real, Hazard was prepared to become the main man at a team for whom the special Champions League three-peat was still a fresh memory.

But since then Hazard has been plagued by injury and struggled to find form for Los Blancos with many questioning the future of the €100million man.

The Belgian is now officially a Champions League winner, but he made just three appearances and played just 83 minutes in Madrid’s 2021-22 triumph – 66 of which were in the 2-1 group stage defeat to Sheriff Tiraspol.

We’ve taken a look at the other six players who joined Real Madrid alongside the Belgium international in the summer of 2019 to see if they fared any better.

How and why do some players become peripheral loanees, bouncing from one club to the other with few chances to break into their parent team? That is a question the now 29-year old Areola must ask himself on a regular basis.

He arrived at Madrid on loan from PSG, which remains his parent club today.

The move came after he had failed to cement himself as the Parisians’ first-choice goalkeeper between 2017 and 2019, swapping first-team roles first with Kevin Trapp and then with Gianluigi Buffon.

When Keylor Navas arrived in Paris from Real, ready to become the club’s undisputed number one, Areola moved the other way on loan for a season in order to provide competition and backup to Thibaut Courtois.

He made a handful of appearances in the 2019-20 season but failed to impress enough to