Eden Hazard’s wages at Real Madrid: How much of a burden is the forward’s salary?

Real Madrid signed left winger Eden Hazard from Chelsea for at least 100 million euros – we honestly do not know the true sum of his transfer due to the infamous add-ons – in the summer 2019 window. Hazard has had some brief moments of brilliance with Los Blancos, but injuries have consistently held him back. And at this point, most Madridistas have resigned themselves to the sad fact that the Belgian will never be the player who arrived from Stamford Bridge.

Much is made of Hazard’s wages and how much they impact Los Blancos. The club has multiple players on significant salaries, with two of the most notable names, Gareth Bale and Isco, set to leave in the summer 2022 transfer window on expiring contracts.

Los Blancos have grand ambitions next summer. They have earmarked money to be paid in wages to free agent Kylian Mbappe and potentially also Antonio Rudiger. Erling Haaland remains a target, too, and Florentino Perez knows he would have to pay him and his representation a whole lot of money.

Eden Hazard is not on an expiring contract, unlike another top earner, Bale. According to Transfermarkt, the No. 7’s contract does not end until after the 2023-2024 season, so he is on the books for two more seasons at Real. Barring a team willing to take on his wages and roll the dice on a 30-year-old player with significant injuries, Hazard could very well be here to stay.

Eden Hazard may make as much as around 25 million euros per year

So how onerous are Hazard’s wages? It seems like there is a lot of inflating of his total, but here is what we can glean from reports in the media.

When Hazard signed with Real Madrid, he reportedly agreed to wages of 400,000 pounds per week – double what he earned at Chelsea. In euros, that’s about 470,000 euros per week. And in a year, that’s between 24 and 25 million euros. Similarly, MARCA says he earns 475,000 euros per week in Madrid.

Meanwhile, AS wrote earlier this year that Hazard earns around 20 million euros per season.

If we ballpark it, Hazard appears to be making between 20 and 25 million euros per year. No matter how you spin it, that is a whole lot of money, and when Bale is off the books, he will 100 percent be the club’s highest-paid player. And with Mbappe set to become the highest earner and Haaland a hopeful Madrid signing, too, Hazard’s salary starts to become a burden.

Right now, Hazard’s salary isn’t a big issue, since Real Madrid have so many key players on team-friendly wages, especially young stars like Vinicius Junior and long-time club legends like Karim Benzema and Luka Modric.

With more free-agent signings on the horizon since Real cannot compete directly with PSG, Manchester City, and Chelsea in bidding wars, clearing out salary space becomes more key. And that’s where a “bad” contract like Hazard’s begins to become a problem.

The summer 2022 transfer window is a pivotal one for Madrid. They want to continue to support Hazard, but because he earns so much money with so little return on that investment, Real may take a more aggressive stance in the future if they feel paying him may prevent the club from signing a more productive player who can be a big part of the team for the next decade.