Thorgan Ganael Francis Hazard (born 29 March 1993) is a Belgian professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder or winger for Ligue 1 club Lens.
Hazard began his professional career at Lens in Ligue 1, and moved to Chelsea in 2012 shortly after they had signed his older brother, Eden. He never played a competitive match for Chelsea, being loaned for two years to Zulte Waregem, where he was awarded the Belgian Golden Shoe in January 2014, for the best footballer in the Belgian Pro League, and the prize for best professional football player in May 2014. He joined Borussia Mönchengladbach in 2014, initially on loan, and made over 100 appearances for the club before moving to Borussia Dortmund in 2019. In January 2023, Hazard joined Eredivisie club PSV Eindhoven on loan. In September 2023, Hazard joined Anderlecht permanently, returning to Belgium.
Having previously played at every level in the Belgian national youth team system, he was handed his first senior international cap against the United States in May 2013. He was part of the Belgian squad that came third at the 2018 FIFA World Cup alongside his older brother Eden, whom he also played alongside at the 2022 FIFA World Cup. His younger brothers, Kylian and Ethan, are also footballers.
Early and personal life Hazard grew up in Braine-le-Comte, a small town in the Wallonia region, but he was born in La Louvière. His first name was inspired by the Belgian comic strip Thorgal and he grew up in a family where football was dominant. His mother Carine and father Thierry were both footballers in Belgium. His father spent most of his career playing at semi-professional level with Louviéroise in the Belgian Second Division, playing mainly as a defensive midfielder. His mother played as a striker in the Belgian Women's First Division and stopped playing when she was three months pregnant with his older brother Eden. After playing football, both his parents became physical education teachers. Thierry retired from his position in 2009 to devote more time to his children.
Hazard has three other siblings. His older brother, Eden, played for Lens' biggest rivals Lille, subsequently finding his best form when playing for Chelsea and last played for Real Madrid in Spain. Hazard's other younger brothers are Kylian and Ethan. In 2013, Kylian joined White Star Bruxelles, and on 29 August 2017, he signed to join Chelsea's development team, however is currently playing for RFC Liège. Like all three of his brothers, Ethan came up through the youth academy of A.F.C. Tubize and its successor Royale Union Tubize-Braine, and currently plays for . Hazard and his three brothers were raised in a comfortable environment with their parents ensuring they had whatever they needed to excel. The family lived "no more than three meters" from a football training ground and the brothers often ventured onto a training pitch through a small hole in order to hone and develop their skills.
Club career Lens
Hazard began his football career playing for hometown club Royal Stade Brainois at age five. After spending five years at the club, Thorgan followed his brother Eden to Tubize. At age 14, he was discovered by French club Lens while playing for Tubize in a local tournament. Similar to his brother's move to Lille, his parents accepted an offer from Lens with the hope that the training facilities in France would be better, here he met fellow Belgium player and future Chelsea teammate Charly Musonda. Hazard's father later admitted Eden was much better than Thorgan, and that joining clubs in the North of France was the best solution, stating, "They remained so close to home and, at the same time, they integrated at structures where they could grow, because in Belgium, unfortunately, it's a little empty for the training of youth." While in the club's youth academy, Hazard played for the Lens under-16 team, alongside players such as Geoffrey Kondogbia and Raphaël Varane, that won the 2008–09 edition of the Championnat National des 16 ans 44.
On 7 April 2010, Hazard signed his first professional contract after agreeing to a three-year deal until June 2013. Ahead of the 2010–11 season, Hazard trained with the senior team during the pre-season. On his pre-season debut, he scored a goal in a 1–1 draw with Belgian club Roeselare. However, Hazard began the season with the club's Championnat de France amateur team in the fourth division. He made his amateur debut on 8 August 2010, appearing as a substitute in a 2–0 victory over Drancy. After spending most of the season playing concurrently with the reserve team in the CFA and with the under-19 team in the Coupe Gambardella, on 9 May 2011, Hazard was named to the senior team for the first time on 11 May in a Ligue 1 match against Bordeaux. However, Hazard did not feature in the match and finished the 2010–11 campaign with no senior team appearances.
Ahead of the 2011–12 season, Hazard was promoted to the senior team permanently and assigned the number 22 shirt. He made his professional debut in Lens' opening league match of the season against Reims, appearing as a second-half substitute in a 2–0 defeat. He played 14 league games that season.
Chelsea On 24 July 2012, Chelsea confirmed on its website the club had agreed terms with Lens for the transfer of Hazard, shortly after they announced the signing of his brother Eden from Lille. He made his debut on 17 August 2012 in an Under-21 Premier League match, a 0–0 home draw against Manchester City in what was to be his only appearance for Chelsea before leaving the club.
Zulte Waregem On 30 August 2012, Hazard was sent on a season-long loan move to Belgian Pro League club Zulte Waregem. The move was set up to allow him first-team experience rather than be developed slowly by Chelsea.
He made his debut on 15 September 2012 in a 1–0 away win against OH Leuven. Hazard scored his first goal on 31 October in a 4–1 home win against Charleroi. On 16 May 2013, Hazard put in an impressive shift as he scored the game's opening goal from the penalty spot before providing two assists in a 5–2 defeat of Club Brugge at the Regenboogstadion in Waregem.
On 15 July 2013, Chelsea and Waregem agreed for Hazard to be loaned back for another year until the end of the 2013–14 season. Hazard scored a free-kick and assisted a goal as Zulte won their season opener against Lierse on 27 July.
On 2 August, the Belgian club announced Hazard would be replacing experienced defender Davy De fauw as club captain, which was received with much anger from a section of the club's supporters. This led to Hazard handing the captain's armband back, less than 24 hours after receiving it. After the incident, it was rumoured the move to make Thorgan the club captain was one of the conditions in the loan deal imposed by Chelsea.
On 28 November 2013, Hazard scored against Wigan Athletic in a 2–1 win in the UEFA Europa League group stage win away at the DW Stadium. He was voted as Zulte's player of the season, and scored 17 goals in 53 matches across all competitions. Hazard also won the Belgian Player of the Year Award.
Borussia Mönchengladbach
On 5 July 2014, Hazard was loaned to German club Borussia Mönchengladbach for the 2014–15 season. During his loan, Hazard wore the number 26. In the 3–1 win against FC 08 Homburg in the DFB-Pokal 16 August 2014, Hazard made his debut, coming on in the 78th minute as a substitute for Branimir Hrgota. He then made his Bundesliga debut on 24 August 2014 in a 1–1 draw against VfB Stuttgart, coming off the bench in the 67th minute.
Hazard scored twice in Gladbach's 7–0 win over FK Sarajevo in the UEFA Europa League play-offs on 28 August 2014, including a curling free-kick from 35 yards out. On 24 September 2014, Hazard made his first start for Borussia Mönchengladbach in the Bundesliga, against Hamburger SV, playing 71 minutes before being substituted for Fabian Johnson in a 1–0 win. On 6 December 2014, Hazard started against Hertha BSC, only his second start in the Bundesliga. He played the full 90 minutes and assisted Tony Jantschke for the first goal of the match in the opening ten minutes, as well as scoring the winning goal in the 83rd minute, his first of the Bundesliga season. The match ended in a 3–2 win, breaking the club's four-match winless streak.
On 23 February 2015, Hazard agreed to sign permanently for Borussia Monchengladbach, affective from 1 July. He joined on a five-year contract, thus lasting until June 2020, a buy-back agreement with Chelsea was also included. The contract consists of four years, along with one year optional. The transfer fee was reported as €8 million (£5.9 million), 16 times as much as Chelsea paid for him. During an interview about his move becoming permanent in the summer, Hazard confirmed his deal does contain a buy-back clause and that he still dreams of returning to Stamford Bridge in the future. In his interview, he said, "I am focusing on excelling at Borussia Monchengladbach, but I still hope to play for Chelsea one day."
On 8 August 2015, in his first game after his transfer, Hazard scored in a 4–1 win at FC St. Pauli in the first round of the DFB-Pokal. Following the resignation of manager Lucien Favre, who lost the first five matches of the Bundesliga, and André Schubert's appointment, he was unable to find a place in the starting lineup. Hazard made his first start under Schubert on 20 December against Darmstadt 98, eventually earning preference from Schubert over Ibrahima Traoré on the right side. Hazard finished the season with four goals, two coming in a match against Hertha BSC on 3 April 2016 in a 5–0 win.
Looking to improve his playing time and goalscoring heading into the year, Hazard scored his first ever hat-trick in a 6–1 victory over Swiss club Young Boys in the second leg of the UEFA Champions League play-off round on 24 August 2016. Mönchengladbach set a record with a 9–2 aggregate scoreline, the largest ever margin of victory in a play-off tie. On 17 September, Hazard and teammate Raffael both scored first-half braces against Werder Bremen in a Bundesliga match.
With rumours that Chelsea were looking to exercise their buy-back clause on Hazard, and that the clause expired at the end of 2016, club sport director Max Eberl claimed Chelsea did not actually have an explicit buy-back clause in Hazard's contract. Hazard, addressing these rumours, said, "I signed a contract here, because I want to play here." On 28 September, Hazard scored his first UEFA Champions League goal, opening the scoring against Barcelona at Borussia-Park before the visitors went on to win 1–2.
On 25 November 2017, he scored from the penalty spot to help his side defeat the Bundesliga record champions Bayern Munich 2–1. Hazard also scored twice in a 2–1 victory against Hertha BSC, and ended the season with eleven goals and six assists.
On 19 August 2018, Hazard, Alassane Pléa and Raffael each scored hat-tricks in an 11–1 win at fifth-tier BSC Hastedt in the first round of the cup.
Borussia Dortmund
On 22 May 2019, Hazard joined fellow Bundesliga side Borussia Dortmund on a five-year contract for a reported fee of €25.5 million. He joined the club at the same time as new teammate Julian Brandt, who arrived from Bayer Leverkusen. He made his Bundesliga debut for the club in a 5–1 win over FC Augsburg on 17 August. On 2 November, he scored his first goal for Dortmund in a 3–0 win against VfL Wolfsburg.
He was part of the squad that won the DFB-Pokal in the 2020–21 season, when Dortmund defeated RB Leipzig 4–1 in the final on 23 May 2021.
Loan to PSV