Hazard says he would have to be more selfish to be the world’s best player but is enjoying playing for Chelsea — and surprising a group of primary school children

Eden Hazard acknowledges with a sigh and a shake of his head in frustration the rise in incidents of intolerance polluting English football. Chelsea’s No 10, one of the finest footballers in the world and also one of the most grounded, campaigns against the poisonous abuse once again being heard in English arenas. “It is hard to stop every incident because in the world we always have stupid people,” Hazard says, “but we have to try.”

Hazard and his Chelsea team-mates have talked about their horror at the insults that the Manchester City winger Raheem Sterling received at Stamford Bridge in December, abuse that is still being investigated to establish whether it was of a racist nature. They have discussed the Islamophobic abuse that Liverpool’s