Belgian star Eden Hazard has been crowned the Europa League Player of the Season for his performances with Chelsea last term.
The Belgian was the Blues’ star man during the 2018-19 campaign and scored two goals in the final as they lifted the trophy in Baku.
Chelsea beat Arsenal 4-1, with Olivier Giroud and Pedro also getting on the scoresheet, before substitute Alex Iwobi – now of Everton – hit a late consolation.
Hazard made eight appearances in the competition, starting four, three of which were in the knockout stages.
He beat former team-mate Giroud and new club-mate Luka Jovic to the prize, with the Serbia international having shone for Eintracht Frankfurt in their run to the semi-finals.
Hazard made a big-money move to Real Madrid this summer after a stellar campaign in London in which he scored 21 goals and recorded 17 assists from 52 appearances across all competitions.
Alongside winning the Europa League, the Blues made it to the final of the Carabao Cup and lost to Manchester City on penalties, as well as finishing third in the Premier League.
Hazard managed 110 goals and 92 assists from 352 games in a Chelsea shirt across all competitions and was a key performer for the Blues after joining from Lille in 2012.
Since arriving in the Spanish capital, his progress has been hampered by injury and he has yet to make his competitive debut for Los Blancos.
However, expectation weighs heavy on the new signing to replace the goalscoring output that was sorely missed after Cristiano Ronaldo left to join Juventus last summer.
Real Madrid endured a disappointing campaign last year, finishing third in La Liga and suffering a last-16 Champions League exit to Ajax, while also being knocked out of the Copa del Rey at the semi-final stage by Barcelona.
The attacking options of Gareth Bale, Karim Benzema, Lucas Vazquez, Mariano Diaz and Vinicius Junior either failed to perform consistently or played irregularly, and the signing of Hazard is seen as Los Blancos’ ‘Galactico’ answer to their problems.
Real Madrid beat Celta Vigo 3-1 in their first game of the campaign but drew 1-1 with Real Valladolid last time out.