Belgium star Eden Hazard announces retirement from International football after group stage exit from FIFA WC

Belgium captain Eden Hazard has announced his retirement from international football, just days after his country was eliminated from the FIFA World Cup in 2022.

The Belgian Red Devils were eliminated from the competition following a 0-0 draw with Croatia on December 1. Hazard led his team to victory in the first two group-stage games.

However, the Real Madrid winger was limited to three minutes off the bench against the 2018 FIFA World Cup finalists. Hazard has declared his retirement from international football at the age of 31. He scored 33 goals in 126 international appearances.

“Today I turn a page. Thanks for your love,” he wrote on Instagram.

Over the last decade or so, the former Chelsea winger has served as the poster boy for Belgium’s underachieving “golden generation.”

He represented his country in the World Cups in 2014, 2018, and 2022. During that time, the most they could hope for was a third-place result in Russia.

His finest performance in a major event came in the 2016 UEFA European Championship. In five games, he scored one and assisted four times, but Belgium was defeated in the quarterfinals by Wales.

His future at Real Madrid is also in doubt. Hazard’s contract with Real Madrid expires in the summer of 2024, and he has only played 98 minutes of La Liga football this season.

With 33 goals, he is also the country’s second-highest goal-scorer in history, trailing only Romelu Lukaku (68).

READ| Cristiano Ronaldo’s girlfriend takes aim at Fernando Santos for dropping him against Switzerland