Chelsea hatch £25m Hazard bid but face fierce competition from Euro rivals

By Sportsmail Reporter
Updated: 06:45 EDT, 12 January 2012

Chelsea are preparing a £25million bid for Lille midfielder Eden Hazard - but the French club are likely to hold out for an offer matching his €40m (£33m) release clause.

Even if they do attempt to prise the highly-rated 21-yearr-old from France with a larger offer, they face stiff competition with Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and both Inter and AC Milan also in the hunt.

Talented: Eden Hazard has impressed the biggest teams in Europe

The Blues are one of two clubs ready to approach Lille but the French champions would not be open to a deal which sees the Belgian move in January.

'Yes, we have received a lot of very interesting proposals,' Lille official Jean-Michel Vandamme told L'Equipe.

'But the clubs want the player immediately and on this we have a very clear idea: Hazard will remain at least until the end of the season. He will not go.'

Disagreeable: Lille want Hazard to stay until the end of the season

He explained that Lille would agree to a sale in January if the buyers loaned the player back until the end of the season, but neither Hazard nor Chelsea would favour this option.

Manchester City and Arsenal have previously been strongly linked to the playmaker, whose representative Marc Formeaux said: 'The player himself has declared that he wants to play for Madrid.'