Eden Hazard gave Jude Bellingham the 2023 Kopa Trophy, which is given to the best young player under 21 years old. Bellingham thanked Hazard for the honour. The 20-year-old midfielder has had a great start to the season with Real Madrid. On Monday, he became the first Englishman to win the Ballon d’Or at an event in Paris.

Along with Gavi, Pedri, Matthijs de Ligt, and Kylian Mbappe, Bellingham became the fifth player to win the prize. He did it ahead of players like Jamal Musiala and Rasmus Hojlund. The England star posted a bunch of happy photos on Instagram to mark the event, and one of them caught the attention of Chelsea fans.

Bellingham shared a picture of the moment Hazard gave him his prize. The Real Madrid star wrote under the picture, “From a legend! [white heart emoji]” to show how much he respected the Chelsea icon.

Bellingham had said before that he wouldn’t be leaving the Santiago Bernabeu for “at least 10 to 15 years.” However, the Blues now have some hope that they might be able to sign the young player one day. That’s because Hazard helped Chelsea get Romeo Lavia during the summer!

According to the Express, the player who used to play for Southampton talked to his countryman about his time at Chelsea before the December World Cup. According to the story, Hazard “actively encouraged” Lavia to join the west London team if the chance came up.

After a few months, Lavia called him to celebrate moving to Chelsea, which he saw for the first time at Cobham Training Ground. This is not likely that Hazard will be able to help Mauricio Pochettino get a player as good as Bellingham, but the Real Madrid midfielder is a big fan of the Blues legend.

According to football.london, Chelsea was interested in the young player for a long time before he joined Carlo Ancelotti’s team. They kept an eye on Bellingham when he was in the Birmingham City school, but they decided not to make a bid. Instead, Borussia Dortmund swooped in and signed him.

Chelsea feels bad that they didn’t sign Bellingham when they had the chance, since he’s now been named the most interesting young player in Europe.