Handed the armband by Marc Wilmots in Vincent Kompany’s absence for the 2016 Euros, Eden Hazard has received a lot of praise for the way he has acted as captain of his national team.
Few have had a bad thing to say about the move, and Roberto Martinez, who took over from Wilmots following the competition, decided to keep things as they were, especially since the Manchester City defender cannot go a game without getting injured these days.
While the move to name Hazard captain in the first place surprised a few, Wilmots, explaining his decision to L’Equipe du Soir in France, said it was the most logical thing to do if he wanted to get the best out of his star player.
He said: “I want to give him responsibility. He was still very young, but everything he’d gone through from the ages of 17 to 25, winning with Lille etc… It was huge. To make him progress quicker in the national team, he needed his famous number 10 and to be captain.
“There were a few others who should have been captain instead of him, like Jan Vertonghen, but it was to help that player to develop. That’s also the role of a manager: giving the keys of a team to someone and say ‘When I’m gone, you keep driving them forward’.”
While Eden Hazard and Belgium didn’t have the greatest of times in France, the player has, however, found a good vein of form under Antonio Conte this season.
Handed a freer role in the Italian’s 3-4-3, the forward has scored seven goals and assisted his teammates twice in 15 appearances for the Blues so far this season, form he has managed to keep up with his national team under Roberto Martinez.
Maybe Wilmots is a genius in disguise and this is all his doing?
