Eden Hazard becoming a cardio junkie was not on our 2026 bingo card | OneFootball

Football has changed a bit since the days when professional players would open up a pub or sportswear shop after hanging up their boots.

The elite-level players of the 2010s are set for life. Eden Hazard‘s Real Madrid contract alone presumably has the Belgian’s future generations nicely sorted.

Some players can’t leave behind the routine of the training pitch, the camaraderie of the dressing room and the adrenaline rush of a matchday and inevitably go into coaching.

Others still have a passion for the game but elect for the cushier life of being a pundit, or – in an increasingly oversaturated market – decide to become a rent-a-quote on podcasts.

We’d have been amazed to see Hazard go into the dugout. It was only the other week that Gareth Bale named Hazard as the worst trainer he ever shared a dressing room with.

“The Chelsea boys will say [the same]. I was similar,” Bale said on the Stick To Football podcast.

“I didn’t love training. I would tick over in training but I wanted to be ready for the game.”

Likewise, it’s been no surprise at all that Bale seemingly has zero interest in becoming a manager. Bit of golf. The odd media gig. A few investments. That’s the good life, eh?

Admittedly, we haven’t been paying particularly close attention to Hazard’s life after he hung up his boots at the age of 32, but it’s gone as we might have expected.

Some banter on Jon Obi Mikel’s podcast. Viral “name a better player than me” TikToks. A charity match out in Qatar, in which he fills out the shirt but can still turn it on, like all great Sunday League trequartistas. The classic stops.

…Wait, what’s this? A 167km cycle?

Hazard? The worst trainer ever? Eden “once scored a hat-trick hungover” Hazard?

We can only imagine the shock from Jose Mourinho, Antonio Conte and a string of exasperated Real Madrid fitness coaches when this video comes across their social media feed.

Speaking in Spanish afterwards, Hazard enjoyed a beer as he soaked in the post-race endorphins.

“Yes, very good… it was tough. One hundred sixty-seven kilometres… but I’m happy to have finished,” he said.

“In the end, a bit tired, but good. It’s something different—I like it.

“Now it’s time to rest a bit.”

This is like the exact opposite of seeing Arjen Robben completing the Rotterdam marathon.

That former Chelsea & Real Madrid always struck you as a cardio junkie. He looks the type.