Joe Cole believes a former teammate and Chelsea legend was just as good as Lionel Messi but lacked the motivation to be as successful as the World Cup winner.
Messi is well-placed to captain Argentina to back-to-back World Cup triumphs, and if the reigning champions beat Switzerland on Sunday, they could potentially face England in the semi-finals.
Even at the age of 39, the Barcelona legend is still going strong with eight goals and an assist in five games, putting him just behind Kylian Mbappe (eight goals, three assists) in the Golden Boot race.
Often regarded as the greatest footballer of all time, few players in history can stake a claim to matching Messi in regards to skills, stats and trophies.
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But former England international Cole says that during his loan spell at Lille, he encountered one player who, ability-wise, was just as good as the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner.
‘I got to play with Eden Hazard, who I think is the best player I ever played with,’ the ex-Chelsea and Liverpool attacker said on the Rest is Football.
‘He was a genius. I played with some great players but he was at another level.
‘If he had the mentality… all footballers are very competitive, you’ve all got that fire in you. He wasn’t like that.
‘He didn’t like training, it was a struggle. Sometimes you had to remind him, “we’ve got a game now”. In the dressing room he’d just be in his own world.’
In 2012, Hazard joined Chelsea – in part because of Cole’s recommendation – and went onto become one of the greatest players in the club’s history.
In seven years, he scored 110 goals and made 92 assists, winning two Premier League titles, two Europa Leagues, the FA Cup and the League Cup.
He was also captain of Belgium’s ‘golden generation’ who finished third at the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
However, the winger was often criticised for his lack of work-rate on the pitch and not looking after his body off it, which resulted in his career taking a disastrous turn post-Stamford Bridge.
He joined Real Madrid in 2019 for a then-club record £102million, but arrived out of shape before suffering continuous injury problems, which limited him to just 30 La Liga starts in four seasons.
In the end, he retired from football aged just 31 following Belgium’s embarrassing group stage exit at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, but there has always been the question of what more Hazard may have achieved.
Asked if Hazard could have been an all-time great had he applied himself properly, Cole responded: ‘Absolutely.
‘I think he’s Messi without the drive. Messi’s got the drive.
‘Some of the things he did with the ball on a day-to-day. I’ve been lucky to have played with some great players [but] he was the best.’
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