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At the U17 European Championship, Belgium was in a very tough group with the Netherlands, England and Iceland. The European Championships took place in their own country and national coach Bob Browaeys did not want to go off. “The fear was that we would make a fool of ourselves. I also missed a creative player up front. Someone who could make a difference,' he says in Sport/Voetbalmagazine .

Eden Hazard meets the profile sought and is picked up at the U16. Despite the fact that he is still an unguided missile at that moment, Browaeys will not regret his choice.

Hazard is decisive in the opening game of the Belgians against the Netherlands (2-2), he shines against England (1-1) and shows himself incredibly altruistic against Iceland (5-1). Belgium thus reaches the semi-final against Bojan Krkic's Spain, in which it draws 1-1 and is only eliminated after the penalties (7-6).

Simple tactics

Nill De Pauw was part of the Belgian U17 at that time. 'Eden mainly wanted to have fun. Any 16-year-old playing at home against the Netherlands, England and Spain in front of 2000 spectators would normally be stiff with stress. But he made it seem he didn't care.'

"I think Hazard has become the player he is today because he seeks diversion even in the most important games. The coach tried to make him more performant, but he had developed his own internal audit that allowed him to find a balance between having fun and boosting his stats.'

Kevin Kis, an average player who later played for Union, Roeselare, Eupen and eventually Lommel, summarizes it as follows: 'The tactic was simple: we gave the ball to Eden and it was waiting for something magical to happen… You had to go blind not to systematically let the ball pass through him.'