Two of the best young talents in football are going great guns for their clubs in two of the top leagues in the world. Eden Hazard was the player of the season for Chelsea last year while James Rodriguez starred for Real Madrid in his first season at the club. Both players have the ability to turn matches on their heads with one magical moment and we compare just which player is actually better than the other using the power of Squawka.com. We only look at the per game average stats since both players didn’t appear in the same number of games last season.
Two stars, almost inseparable
While Eden played more games than Rodriguez, both players had great seasons for their respective clubs. The ability of both players to run with the ball and take on opponents is unprecedented with Hazard winning 64% of all his take ons while James comes in with a 47% record of successful take ons from last season.
However it is James who tops the board when it comes to goals scored and chances created. The Colombian averaged 0.46 goals per game for Real Madrid last season compared to 0.37 goals per game for Hazard at Chelsea. The Colombian also was a better assister than Hazard with 2.66 chances created per game compared to 2.63 chances created by the Belgian at Chelsea.
Hazard though storms back with more forward passes than Rodriguez, the Belgian averaged 32 forward passes per game last season while Rodriguez managed 27 forward passes per game for Real Madrid last season. Hazard also had more key passes than Rodriguez for the Blue of Chelsea last season with 2.39 key passes per game while James was just a little short with 2.21 key passes per game.
The Colombian though did provide more assists than Hazard last season with 0.45 assists per game compared to 0.24 assists per game for Hazard. To be fair it is extremely difficult to come to a conclusion as to which player is better than the other. Both are important for their teams and have done extremely well for them, both are young and have a lot of time on their hands to grow and get better.
They should kick off this season with a bang and do more than what they did last season for their respective teams. The onus is on James Rodriguez to shine as bright as Cristiano Ronaldo and maybe for Hazard to maintain the level he performed at last season.
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