Shocking Revelation: See How Real Madrid FINALLY Landed Eden Hazard Deal After 10 years Of Trying

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Zidane told Mourinho to sign Hazard but he ignored him and went for Modric... now Real Madrid FINALLY have their man: The inside story of how they completed a £130m transfer that was TEN years in the making

• Eden Hazard watched Zinedine Zidane win World Cup as a seven-year-old fan 
• Frenchman saw him play as a youngster and the winger caught his eye 
• Zidane wanted to bring him to Real but Florentino Perez preferred to wait 
• He repeatedly recommended Belgian to managers at Real but was ignored 
• Chelsea star has been Zidane's No 1 target for years and move is finally on

Eden - the new beginning for Real Madrid. That's how Eden Hazard's arrival from Chelsea is being greeted in the Spanish capital. 

No one knows better than Zinedine Zidane that the genesis of the 28-year-old's move to Spain goes back at least a decade. This record-breaking transfer for Real Madrid has been 10 years in the making.

Zidane and Hazard's paths crossed in 2010 when still working in an unofficial capacity for Real Madrid despite having retired from playing for them, he became enamoured with two young talents coming through in France.

One was Raphael Varane - who he ended up calling to persuade to join Madrid and not Manchester United - and the other was Hazard.

Watching the young Belgian at Lille, Zidane was left in no doubt that the kid with the No 26 on his back was destined for great things. He alerted Madrid to the 19-year-old but their attitude at the time was - why buy him now?

Better let someone else take the gamble and snap him up when he is more established. Two years later when the time came for Lille to sell Hazard - by now wearing No 10 and aged 21 - Zidane again urged Real Madrid president Florentino Perez to bring him to the Bernabeu. Bbut with Jose Mourinho at the helm Real Madrid signed Luka Modric instead and Zidane watched one of his favourite players move to London.

This was already very much a mutual appreciation society as Hazard had been a fan of Zidane long before the Madrid and France legend had noticed him. World Cups mark all young fans and Eden was seven when Zidane was winning the tournament for France in 1998.

Hazard was an excited kid watching at home with brothers Thorgan and Kylian and mum and dad Carine and Thierry who both played semi-professionally.

When the tournament kicked-off his loyalties were split between his own country and that of his hero and with Belgium out by the group stage after failing to win a single game it was a small step to adopting the host nation France.

He wore Zidane's France No 10 shirt as the now Real Madrid coach had his finest hour as a player, scoring twice in the final win over Brazil. Hazard would end up leaving Belgium to play in France, signing for Lille and debuting for them aged 16.

In 2011 he led them to the Double and was named best player in France. Zidane's original tip-off to Madrid the previous year resonated with Perez but not enough that he moved to bring the youngster to Spain - the stars were now getting closer together but they still were not quite aligned.

By 2016 things moved forward a little further. Rafa Benitez was fired by Real Madrid and Zidane was given the keys to the front door - no more, just an occasionally listened to adviser, no more a mere cog in Mourinho's backroom staff, no more just Carlo Ancelotti's assistant hugging him on the touchline as Madrid won the Champions League in 2014, no more the B-team coach trying to bring through young players while competing in the third tier in Spain's 'Segunda B'; he was now the main man and again he told the club to sign Hazard.