THE TWO-MAN TEAM
Belgium’s golden generation are close to becoming sepia-tinged history, with the focus shifted to a pair of icons who now carry a nation’s hopes alone. That one them isn’t Eden Hazard, though, speaks volumes of his bleak spell in the wilderness where much has changed
Words Richard Jolly
No nation has spent this long as the best team in the world since all-conquering Spain kept possession of their No.1 rank with the kind of care that defined their purveyors of tiki-taka. Perhaps the most remarkable element of Belgium’s summit stretch, though – going back to October 2018 – is that this is a country of about 11 million people. Or maybe it’s the fact that the man who was widely considered their shining talisman hasn’t actually featured for more than half of that time.
In part, that’s due to the 10-month hiatus of international football. But the fact remains: when FFT went to press, Eden Hazard had last played for Belgium in November 2019, in a 6-1 shellacking of Cyprus. Three days earlier, he had scored twice in a 4-1 rout of World Cup quarter-finalists Russia in Saint Petersburg – his 25th and 26th goals in the previous five years of international football.