Thorgan Hazard followed suit and penned a contract with Chelsea joining his brother in West London back in 2012 for a significant transfer fee. He left Lens to sign for the Blues for a high-paying contract. It became clear that Chelsea would have not gone to such lengths to sign Thorgan for such a fee just because his brother Eden had just signed on from Lille for a fee of €32million. Brotherly love is not a reason to sign a player and Chelsea’s powers-that-be clearly felt that the young Hazard has plenty of talent of his own.

Sadly the younger Hazard only got to play in the Blue of Chelsea in one match – an Under-21 Premier League match, which finished in a goal-less stalemate against rivals Manchester City. At the end of the 2012 summer transfer window Thorgan was sent out on loan for a season to top Belgian League side Zulte Waregem where he spent the entire season. Hazard enjoyed a great year in Belgium and banged in 17 goals during the 53 games he appeared in for his side in all competitions. To top off a great year and to recognize his fine play, Thorgan Hazard won the Belgian Player of the Year Award for his performances at SV Zulte Waregem during his season there and this meant that he was signed on loan for the 2013-2014 season too.

Although many felt the younger Hazard had done enough to merit a chance to make it with the Chelsea first team he was not offered the opportunity and was loaned to Borussia Mönchengladbach of the German Bundesliga for the 2014-2015 season. In February of 2015, Thorgan Hazard agreed to a permanent move to the Bundesliga’s Borussia Mönchengladbach on 1st July. He joined on a five-year contract good through until the end of June 2020, and interestingly Chelsea insisted on a buy-back clause in the deal with the German side, getting themselves the option to re-acquire the Belgian forward if they wished. It was a 4 year contract with one year optional. The transfer fee paid by Mönchengladbach was reportedly €8 million, which depending on the exchange rate equates to about 16 times what Chelsea paid for him so clearly the Stamford Bridge power brokers, scouting and playing staff thought very highly of Hazard junior.

On 16th May 2013, Thorgan Hazard was recognised by his full national side – he earned his first senior call-up as manager Marc Wilmots’ included Thorgan in his 28-man squad for a friendly with the United States of America. Hazard made his debut against USA coming on for Romelu Lukaku as a 2nd half substitute in his sides comfortable 4-1 win over America. Unfortunately, Thorgan did not make the squad to play in Brazil and was one of 7 standby players who ultimately were not needed by Wilmots.

Speaking about his Chelsea career, Thorgan Hazard had this to say as reported by Sky Sports:

“I knew I would not stay at Chelsea when I signed for them,” Hazard told Belgian newspaper Het Nieuwsblad.

“It was a great opportunity to join such a big club, but I knew I needed regular playing time to show what I could do.

“Chelsea like to buy young players and then slowly get them ready. All the young players like Kevin De Bruyne, Charly Musonda and Romelu Lukaku were shipped out on loan. You need regular playing time at that age.

“Maybe Chelsea now regret their decision not to give De Bruyne and Lukaku more chances, I don’t know.”

Despite suggestions that Chelsea only signed Thorgan to satisfy brother Eden, Thorgan responded by saying,

“Of course, it helped that Chelsea also signed Eden, but it is not like they just sign every player’s brother,”.

So we can hope that Thorgan carries on his undeniable development and one day we might just see him in the Blue of Chelsea as a team-mate of his brother.