– I stayed in Lille for the 2011/12 season, but by 2012 I would say that leaving had already become a duty. Because then I couldn’t really achieve much more [than the league title, two Player of the Year awards, and two Young Player of the Year awards mentioned in the question]. With all due respect to the club, I couldn’t do much more there. We played in the Champions League, but overall the season wasn’t good. I told myself: it’s time to move on, I have to leave. My dream was always Real Madrid, ever since I was a little boy. I was a fan of Zidane and all of that. Also the Bernabéu. But I also wanted to play in the Premier League. When I joined Lille’s first team at 18, all we watched on CANAL+ was the Premier League. Even though Real was my favorite club, I told my teammates that I would first go to the Premier League.

– Those were seven beautiful years at Chelsea and a beautiful ending with the Europa League. The easiest thing then would probably have been to say that I’d stay there for life. I was happy at Chelsea, people liked me. If I had wanted a new contract, I would have gotten it. I could have had whatever I wanted. My kids felt good, my wife was delighted. But I still wanted… I wanted Real Madrid, you understand?

– The transfer to Real? Honestly, everything went fine. Actually, it was all easy. With Pérez everything was easy. I actually wanted to go there a year earlier. Before the season with Sarri, I told Marina, the Chelsea director: let me leave. But then Real hadn’t made an offer. She replied: okay, you can leave if you want, but tell them to make an offer. So I went to Real and they were like… I said: do you not want to do this or what? Bla, bla, bla. I said: okay, not now then. Then Sarri came, we talked, and I told Marina: I’ll do a year with Sarri and next year I’ll leave for sure. She said: okay. And that season with Sarri was great. I think if it hadn’t gone so well, maybe I wouldn’t have joined Real. The plan was always to leave for Real after the World Cup [in 2018]. But it turned out how it turned out. In the end, I moved to Real, and the talks went perfectly. That’s it, I wanted something new.

– Did I expect to be Cristiano’s successor? I know people thought that, because that’s how it looked. But no, Cristiano is Cristiano, I’m far from him. I’m not on his level, but above all I’m far from what he means to Real Madrid. I arrived as a new player, with new ambition, with a completely different style of play, because Cristiano doesn’t play like me at all. Maybe we were similar when Cristiano first debuted at Manchester, but not at all like the finished version of him. And when I came, they told me: do your thing, play like you always play, and just be yourself. Don’t start changing just because you’re at Real Madrid, the biggest club in the world.

– With Zizou I got along great. I’d had his number for a few years already. He had also spoken very highly of me when I was 19. And for me, Zidane was a legend. The one legend. For me Zidane represented football. When I signed, he immediately called and said: great, see you in July, enjoy your vacation, because during the season we’ll be working hard.

– My physical shape and my unflattering look when I first joined Real Madrid? Actually, I did what I always did every year. For me, vacation meant 3–4 weeks of switching off from a whole year of work and full focus. I always said that. I always repeated: don’t bother me, I definitely won’t be running every day during the holidays. I’ll eat, I’ll have a drink, calmly. I’ll play with my kids, we’ll go to the beach, eat some ice cream together. Voilà! But I think that time I overdid it a bit! That’s why it may have hit me harder. Maybe it was one week too much [laughs]. Even I looked at the photos and said: that’s too much, that’s a bit over the top. But we had five weeks to get fit. That’s what I always did. I think we went to Montreal, and I went into this mode: well, I gained 3–4 kilos, but now I’ll get to work [claps]. And that’s how you get ready for the season. Losing weight was easy for me. I gained fast but also lost fast. So when you look at those early Real Madrid pictures, yes, but later everything was normal and I worked at full throttle. At the beginning I wasn’t even playing badly, but I wasn’t scoring goals.

– I found a good rhythm in October and November, and then I got injured against PSG. After that, I never had continuity. It was the same injury I had at the end of the title-winning season with Chelsea [in 2017]. I broke my ankle, had surgery, and had a plate inserted. Back then I came back in great form. I had great rehab and returned at full strength. I could play with the plate, no problem. Sometimes I felt it, but no problem. At Real I got injured against PSG, just when I was starting to play really well. Before PSG I’d had a good game against Eibar. Those were two or three top weeks. People started saying: Eden is here, he’s great. Against PSG I got injured. I started rehab and decided not to have surgery because there was no need. Rehab lasted 2.5–3 months. I came back and played a great first half against Levante. In the second half, I got injured again. Exactly the same injury: a fracture in the right fibula. I said: strange, two of the same injuries within three months. But I was coming back feeling good. Together with the club we decided I’d have surgery in Dallas. We came back and then COVID hit. I landed in Madrid and two days later the pandemic started. I had no rehab. I trained at home alone. I was by myself, with kids at home all the time. I didn’t boycott rehab, but I was alone. It wasn’t easy. And at the same time people were already commenting that I’d been at the club for half a year and scored only one goal. But I told myself I’d come back. We returned, but was it serious? Matches in empty stadiums, no fans. That’s not why I came here… I came for a Bernabéu filled with 80,000 people. But I returned and pushed myself to make everything right. Still, I felt some pain. We were fighting for the league title, and I told myself: give more, come on. On the day we won the title, I felt terrible. I said then: that’s it, time for rehab again. After that I had a series of small injuries. The second season with Zizou was the hardest for me, because I played a bit, it hurt, I stopped, I came back, it hurt again. It was really tough. That second season was difficult.

– Should I have had another surgery? People think they know everything, but they don’t know the whole story. This is a chance to say it. I told the doctor that I didn’t feel good and maybe another surgery would be a good option, because I was in pain. It was also about the fact that I had a series of injuries, whereas in seven years in the Premier League I had zero injuries, even though I was constantly being fouled. People thought it was because I was overweight. That wasn’t true. I was overweight at the very beginning, but not afterwards. And suddenly at Real I started having muscle injuries I didn’t even know existed. A knock here, a strain there. I said: there must be a problem. That’s why I told the doctor: let’s do another surgery. The doctor said that if I had another injury, then we’d go ahead. I had that injury… but we didn’t do the surgery. They told me the club didn’t want it. Okay, I accepted that. They pay me and I play for them. That’s the normal protocol. But in my head I already had this: I’ll keep going, but I have this problem. I could play some games, but in my mind I was always thinking about the pain. That’s the story. But one day I wake up and I have an infection. Suddenly a lump grows on my foot. So then I did have the procedure. And the postponed EURO 2021 was coming. I was also coming off a bad year, playing little, people criticizing me. I told Belgium’s staff: let’s do the surgery, then go hard on rehab before the EURO. I was close with Belgium’s doctors and physios, and we have excellent medical staff. I never worked as hard as I did that month. At the EURO I started with two substitute appearances because I was coming back from the surgery. But I felt good. In the round of 16 we played Portugal. I had a great game. And at the end I got injured. That killed my morale. I was 30 and felt it was very intense. That was probably my 18th injury in two years. I was exhausted. And I got injured after doing everything perfectly in rehab.

– We lost to Italy, got knocked out, I went on holiday. Ancelotti came to Real with Pintus, the fitness coach. He told me: we’ll make you a great program, we’ll take care of you. But right away I got injured again, then another, and I gave up. Mentally I let go. During those two years with Ancelotti, I gave up, I surrendered. I played maybe one or two good games. And then the youngsters came in. And they were good, I couldn’t complain about that. I couldn’t play when others were that good. That’s football. I gave up a bit, but I was happy to be with them. We had great relationships. Alaba came, Thibaut was there. I had a great relationship with Karim. With Modrić. With Kroos. I was in my little cocoon. I didn’t play much, but I wasn’t getting injured either. It was a win–win situation. I also had a very good salary. I felt fine, but I thought: this is the end of my career. The question was: could I get back to my best form? I believed that at the top level of 2018, no, but I could still do small things, play some good games. But Real Madrid doesn’t want that. Real pays €100 million for you and expects three goals every match. I felt it would be hard, especially because I always felt some pain. At the same time, I lived in that cocoon, I was happy in Madrid, and so on.

– Problems in the dressing room because of my situation? Often, when you have a big salary and don’t play, you become a burden. People start saying: it’s better if you leave for the sake of the group. But I had great relationships with everyone. They didn’t want me to leave! [laughs] They told me to stay. But when I had one year left on my contract, I gave it up to the club because I thought: I’ve been here four years and haven’t done much, so I’ll do this out of respect. Out of respect, I’ll give up the millions that were left to be paid to me. I left like a gentleman. I even told myself: you know well what you should do – do one good thing for Real at the end. It was a tough adventure, but at least in the end I did something good. My teammates said: are you stupid or what? [laughs] They said: stay with us for that year. We laughed about it. In the end I even started playing more, but I thought: another year of hotels, traveling, and so on, and at home I have kids… So yes, it was a lot of money, but so what? I went to the director and told him: listen, I’m giving up the entire last year, but you have to release me from my contract now. They accepted immediately. It suited them, because I wasn’t really playing anymore. And after everything I still have a good relationship with the president. He told me: you were unlucky with injuries, Vini emerged, and in the end small things stopped you from doing more, but hats off, you’re a good guy, bla bla bla.

– Do I consider myself a Champions League winner in 2022? In the end I have to say no. Yes, I won the Champions League, and if people ask, then yes, I have that trophy. But deep down I didn’t contribute to it. I don’t brag about that win, no. Okay, I won it, but you’ll never hear me say in an interview: I’m a European champion. A Europa League champion, yes, because I won it, I scored in the final, I did everything. Overall, that season I didn’t play much, but I was in the team and contributed my part.

– Relationship with Benzema? I always put guys like that above myself. I knew I was good, but I always put players like Benzema and Modrić above me. They are legends. With Karim it was great right from the start. I remember the first day he just came up and asked: Eden, how are you? We talked a lot and played well together. I think he’s also disappointed in me, with how things turned out. But after everything, we still have a good relationship. That season when he won the Ballon d’Or… [rolls eyes] It was incredible. Every player dreams of a season like that. And then there was also Thibaut’s season… In the end, they won us that Champions League. Everyone in the club was great, but Thibaut and Karim won it for us. And me, because I created the atmosphere [laughs]. People don’t know that detail [winks]. I have a tiny percentage in what we achieved then [laughs]. But no, seriously, hats off to Karim.

– Decision to retire? I didn’t think too much about it, but I asked myself: what can I do? I had contacts in Lille and could have gone there. I think they would have taken me. But I worried about what I could give and how I’d look. That it would hurt my image. That I still felt pain. Maybe I’d be there for a year and play three games. I didn’t want that. I thought about going back to Belgium, but more in a life sense, not for football. And I didn’t want that either [smiles]. I love my country, but I feel so good in Madrid that I didn’t see that move. MLS tempted me, but no offer came. There was something from Saudi Arabia, but I didn’t feel it. So I decided: stay home, you have money, you still have health, even if you’ve had so many injuries… Enjoy your kids. Of course, I spoke with my wife, kids, and parents. It was hardest for my parents, because they watched me injured, and I think they were happy when it ended. Plus, we started seeing each other more often. The criticism from those Madrid years also reached them. It didn’t affect me, but it did affect my loved ones. Maybe not my wife, but especially my mom.

– Am I bored in retirement? I’m not bored. I have many plans and projects. I also have a big family. I visit my brothers and parents, making up for lost time since I left home at 14. I travel, I play sports. I enjoy traveling with my kids. So no, I’m not bored. Work in football? Not for now. I’m not saying never, but I don’t think I’ll do anything in professional sport. It’s a special world. I felt good in it for 16 years, but I’d rather not go back. I loved the 90 minutes on the pitch, but not so much the training camps, hotels, flights, three-week preparations in another country, or media obligations. I liked it, but I don’t want to repeat it.

– The three toughest defenders I faced? Sergio Ramos impressed me. His titles and achievements. It’s hard for me to compare eras, but for me he’s the best defender in history. I also played with John Terry. He’s a boss. And I played with Kompany. I’ll name them, but there are certainly more names. There’s Van Dijk. There’s Raphaël Varane, who also had a great career.