Eden Hazard made his senior international debut in 2008 at the age of 17 and has since won over 95 caps. He scored his first goal for Belgium against Kazakhstan in October 2011 and has netted 27 times for his country as of October 2018.
He made his debut in the finals of an international tournament at the 2014 FIFA World Cup as Belgium reached the last eight and also appeared at UEFA Euro 2016 where they were eliminated at the same stage.
Hazard was appointed captain prior to the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia and Belgium qualified for the last 16 as Group H winners with wins over Panama, Tunisia and England. Roberto Martinez’s side then fought back from a two-goal deficit to beat Japan 3-2 in the first round of the knock-out stage and set-up a quarter final showdown with tournament favorites Brazil.
Hazard set a record for successful dribbles completed in any World Cup game since 1966, with 100% success rate in ten dribbles, as Belgium beat Brazil 2-1 to advance to the semi-finals for only the second time in their history. In the last four, Belgium were eliminated by eventual winners France, losing 1-0, before beating England 2-0 in the third-place play-off to seal their best-ever finish at a major international tournament. in total, Hazard scored three goals and set-up another two and received the Silver Ball as second-best player of the tournament behind Croatia’s Luka Modric. He was named in the 2018 FIFA World XI following his exploits in Russia.
