The Fans Football Blog3

Belgian newspaper De Standaard claims that Barcelona is very interested in Lille attacking midfielder and Belgian youth international Eden Hazard (17).

Hazard, who made his debut for French first division team Lille in October 2007, renewed his contract with his club earlier this week until 2012. The Belgian midfielder made yesterday his debut with the Belgian senior national team.

Hazard was one of the star players at the 2007 UEFA European Under-17 Football Championship held in Belgium, in which Belgium reached the semi-finals, only to lose to Spain on penalties.

Asked about the rumours linking him with several European top clubs, among which Barcelona, Hazard said to the newspaper that he's now focusing on Lille: "When I chose to join Lille four years ago, that was because the club has an excellent youth academy. I've made a lot of progress but Lille knows they shouldn't burn me too early. This season, I'm almost always part of the first team, but I have to go step by step.

People compare me with Bojan Krkic, which is flattering but Bojan plays at a higher level. He plays with an absolute top club like Barcelona and he's also one year older. Nonetheless, we played with the national U-17 team against Spain and Bojan in the semi-finals and although we lost the game, I certainly wasn't worse than him that day."

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