Eden Hazard Isn't Better Than Cristiano Ronaldo, but Jose Mourinho Knows That

In the modern game, we love nothing more than a comparison. Games, goals, medals, passing completion rates, touches inside the penalty area: Nothing is off-limits.

We always want clearly defined lists of who is better than who, mainly so we can then endlessly debate the order of said lists across social media and Internet comments sections. That’s just the way things are these days, and it's great isn’t it?

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Jose Mourinho has spawned a few more of those comments with his recent assertion, via the Telegraph, that Eden Hazard was a better player than Cristiano Ronaldo last season—a campaign in which the Belgian claimed the Premier League title, the League Cup and the Footballer of the Year awards voted for by both players and journalists in England.

Ronaldo, in comparison, picked up the underwhelming double of the UEFA Super Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup, which are hardly what he’d have been targeting at the beginning of the campaign.

And it is that comparative failure which forms the crux of Mourinho’s argument, with the Portuguese saying, via the Telegraph:

"

Last season, yes [Hazard is above Ronaldo]. In spite of the fact that Ronaldo was fantastic. He was fantastic. He scored an incredible number of goals. I am not saying he is not fantastic. I am not saying he was not fantastic. I am just saying that, in my personal view, every football player in the world should understand that a team has to be in front and no titles …

"

It's hardly damning stuff for Mourinho’s fellow Portuguese—and a player he managed at Real Madrid between 2010 and 2013—but enough of a statement to make you sit up and take notice. Hazard is a better player because he won more important trophies than Ronaldo last season. Really?

Like plenty of other statements coming from Mourinho’s mouth, you get the impression that he knows that the impact of his words will end up being more important than the words themselves.

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Ronaldo and Lionel Messi have been considered to be so far in front of everyone else in world football for so long now that any assertion that they have an equal or better is immediately disregarded. Remember the fuss surrounding Roy Hodgson picking Javier Mascherano as his 2014 Ballon d’Or winner? As the Independent reminds us, Ronaldo and Messi weren’t even in his top three.

Messi is 28 and Ronaldo is 30, so there will come a time when the pair are legitimately challenged for global top billing. But any such suggestions at this point still tend to get shot down in ridicule. However, for Mourinho, it makes perfect sense to claim that Hazard is superior to one or both, because Hazard is the only one he can currently pick for his team.

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He might have had Ronaldo’s name on his roster for three years at the Bernabeu, but his best hope for success in 2015/16 lies at the gifted feet of Hazard, so why not big him up ahead of the campaign?

The Belgian’s numbers might not be as ridiculous as Ronaldo’s—14 goals and nine assists in 38 league appearances compared to Ronaldo’s continent-high 48 goals and impressive 16 assists (meaning he contributed to a frankly ridiculous 64 strikes in 35 games), all via the Telegraph—but football doesn’t have to be all about numbers.

Hazard is the standout star in a team which Mourinho hopes will go on to dominate English football for a decade, and what’s more, he’s only 24, so he stands a good chance of being around for most of those 10 years.

Why not fill him with confidence and send him out on to the pitch with the challenge of proving that he’s the best player in the Premier League for a second season in a row?

Wind him up and watch him go. The results could be spectacular.