eden hazard

hello, today I will be looking at Eden Hazards development from a young boy from Belgian to "the best young player in the world" Much has been said about the Belgian national teams 'golden era' where they find themselves well equiped with young attacking talent.

it seems as though hazard had everything needed to succeed at football,Hazard was born in La Louviere and grew up in Braine-le-cointe His mother, Carine, and father, Thierry were both footballers. His father spent most of his career playing at semi-professional  level with La Louviere in the Belgian second division He played mainly as a defensive midielder His mother played as a striker in the belgian womens first deivision.

Their family home was next door to the Royal Stade Brainois training pitch, he had hoped over a fence and was practicing his penalties. he was caught by the manager who was watching him for ten minutes and was very impressed with him, sensing he was in trouble the young Hazard sprinted home and got a shock when the Manager came knocking on his door inviting him to train with the junior team.

during his time at the club During his time at the club, one of his youth coaches described him as a "gifted" player. He added: "He knew everything. I had nothing to teach him"
When Hazard was just eight he played with the club in a youth tournament and there were scouts from RFC Tubize there who asked his parents to sign him. His father said he was too young to make that move but when he was older he would.
when Hazard was 10 he moved to Tubize which was only 30 miles from his home in Belgium.
When Hazard was 13 and playing on full size ptches, word started to spread about the Belgian prodigy 
"Clubs were contacting us all the time, and Lille were turning up to virtually every game he played. We knew we were about to lose him, and it was always likely to be Lille. It’s only half-an-hour away by train, and their academy even included a boarding school. The boys eat, sleep and learn there. It was ideal, and, at 15, we had to say goodbye to him."
Hazard was quickly improving at Lille and was quickly promoted to their reserve team aged just 16 and still playing for the u-18 team. 
After appearing in a friendly against Belgian club Brugge still aged 16, he made the 18 man squad for their cup game against Nancy and subsequently made his competitive debut for the club after coming on as a 78th minute substitute.
the next season Hazard was given the number 26 shirt and was permanently promoted to the senior team.

He often made substitute appearances for Lille and became a rotational player. One of his substitute appearances proved beneficial against Auxerre on 20 September. With Lille trailing 2–1 in the waning minutes of the match, Hazard, after Lille took a corner quickly scooped up a short clearance from Auxerre and took a right-footed shot just outside the box. It beat the keeper and drew the score 2–2 in the 88th minute. Lille went on to win 3-2.

In the summer of the 08-09 season there was constant speculation about Hazards future with various clubs being linked with a move for the then 18 year old with French legend, Zinedine Zidane personally recomending the youngster to Real Madrid.

Hazard has had a very quick rise to the top with plenty of speculation about him. In 2012 he signed for English  club Chelsea for £32 million pounds and has gone on leaps and bounds since then mainly thanks to Jose Mourinho who has been trying to turn him into one of the top footballers in the world.

at only 23 he certainly has the potential to one day win the Balon D'or which he himself has said would be a dream come true.

 

looking at Neymar's development

Hello, today I am going to talk about how geography impacted neymars career,

It is well known that most Brazilian footballers play with flair and guile, just look at players like Pele, Rivelino, Zico or Ronaldinho and Neymar is no exception. Neymar is known for his tricks, close control and dribbling.

he has been dubbed the next Pele for the Brazilian national team mainly for his goal scoring exploits and inventivness when with the ball.

Neymar was born in town of Mogi das Cruzes in São Paulo in 1992 but he moved to the coastal town of São Vicente later the same year. he often played football on the streets practising his skills by doing keepy-uppies with his friends.

Neymar harnessed his skills as a youngster by playing futsal (indoor football that teaches close control and good technique) for his local side, Portuguesa santista.

 In brazil, young children start off playing futsal and when they are old enogh they have a choice whether to continue with futsal or move to 11 a-side full pitch.

Santos scouts saw Neymar play for his club in an 11 a-side match and signed him but were almost piped to his signature by rivals Sao Paulo.

At 14 whilst still in Santos youth team, he was invited by real madrid to fly to spain and have a trial during Real's 'GALACTICOS' era and he met many of his idols like Ronaldo,Zidane,Roberto Carlos and Robinho.

After a succesful trial he was all but signed to Real but they were not willing to pay Santos €50,000

Neymar quickly went through the ranks back at Santos and made his first appearance as a 17 year old against oeste.

in 2010 Santos rejected a £12million offer from west ham and later a £19million offer from chelsea for the youngster.

after more hype he was being linked with multi million pound moves to england (notably chelsea ,manchester united and arsenal) and to Spain (Real madrid and Barcelona)

Neymar has since moved to Barcelona for a reported €50million although the exact figure paid by Barca is unknown.

Neymars career seems to have stagnated at Barca where he and Leo Messi have failed to link with each other as the fans would like, although he is only 22 he has a lot of time ahead of him to improve and to hopefully fulfil his potential.

introduction

Hello, my name is fionn and I am a football fan, Over the next few weeks I hope to post blogs about how geography effects football players and how they develop. I will look at current stars like eden hazard and neymar, I hope you enjoy.