Eden Hazard has been named as the Profressional Footballer’s Association’s Young Player of the Year. The Belgian, who was also nominated for the main award, was handed the prize at a ceremony at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London.
The Chelsea midfielder has had a superb season, scoring 14 Premier League goals, with the Blues second in the table following yesterday’s 2-0 win at Anfield. Hazard beat the likes of Ross Barkley, Daniel Sturridge, Raheem Sterling, Luke Shaw and Aaron Ramsey to the award.
After winning the award, Hazard told the australia chile odds website “it’s always good to win awards because it means you’ve had a good season, but I prefer to win things collectively.” Manager Jose Mourinho hopes to have Hazard back for Wednesday’s match with Atletico Madrid, after Hazard missed the Liverpool win yesterday. He hasn’t featured since going off injured in Chelsea’s 2-0 win in the second leg of their Champions League quarter-final with Paris Saint Germain.
Three of Chelsea’s squad was named in the PFA team of the year, with Hazard being joined the goalkeeper Petr Cech and defender Gary Cahill. On the night Luis Suarez won the PFA player of the year, after an exceptional season for Liverpool, where he scored 30 goals from just 32 matches. Even though he has missed the last few matches, Hazard is expected to start against Atletico Madrid on Wednesday night. Chelsea will be taking on the Spaniards in the second leg of the Champions League semi-final at Stamford Bridge.
This is the first major award for the Belgian wizard since he joined Chelsea in 2012. He has won several collective awards previously. The midfielder will be joining the elite list of players like Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale to have won this award in the past. He will be hoping that this is one of the many.