Eden Hazard was ‘still drunk’ from a leaving bash when he scored a hat-trick in his final game for former club Lille before going on to join Chelsea
EDEN HAZARD allegedly netted a hat-trick while "still drunk" from the night before, during his last game for Lille.
The Belgian, who joined Chelsea in 2012, had not even slept - according to his former team-mate Rio Mavuba.
Lille went on to beat Nancy 4-1 in the final match of that season, after Hazard had gone out for some drinks with team-mates.
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At that point Hazard's switch to Stamford Bridge was all-but complete, despite interest from Real Madrid and Manchester United.
The fact that Chelsea won that season's Champions League seemed to swing the pendulum in their favour.
With the club adrift in third place going into the final game of that season, they were already assured of going into the Champions League play-off places the next term.
That season the Lille squad featured familiar Premier League names including Joe Cole, Dimitri Payet and Mathieu Debuchy.
But Hazard, then 21, confidently nabbed a hat-trick anyway, showing he had the bottle for the fight ahead of a glamorous switch to the Premier League.
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Since moving to Chelsea, Hazard has won the Prem title and PFA Player of the Year and has been arguably the best player in the top flight so far this term.
There is certainly no questioning the Belgian's professionalism and focus on the job as he aims to break the Ballon d'Or stranglehold held by Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo on the famous award.
Angola-born Frenchman Mavuba said: “We were certain to finish third and we were facing Nancy the following day.
"It was Eden Hazard’s last match with Lille and he wanted to organise a little something.
"We decided to go have a little drink. A little drink that dragged on somewhat. The following morning, Eden was still drunk. That evening against Nancy, not even with 30 minutes played, Eden had already bagged a hat-trick.
"The guy had not even slept, he drank for the entire night and he put away a hat-trick in 30 minutes. We all looked at each other, we told ourselves that this guy was the real deal.”