I played with Lampard and Mata at Chelsea but flop who made just six appearances was most talented, says Eden Hazard

EDEN HAZARD pulled out a surprise name when picking the most talented star he played with.

The Chelsea hero played alongside some of Chelsea’s best ever players including Frank Lampard, John Terry and Didier Drogba.

He also played for Real Madrid where his team-mates included the likes of Luka Modric, Toni Kroos and Vinicius Jr.

But Hazard revealed the only player who ever left him awestruck was Kakuta, who made just six appearances for the Blues between 2007-2015.

Hazard said on The Obi One Podcast: “When you say Kevin De Bruyne, he’s top on the list, when you say [Frank] Lampard he’s top of the list, Juan Mata for me was top of the list.

“I’m gonna give you one name and John knows the player. The only one I was saying ‘wow’… was Gael Kakuta.

“You asked me talent. Kakuta by far number one. Talent, I mean, talent. Wow.”

Kakuta, 32, now plays for Ligue 2 side Amiens – the 13th club of his career.

The former wonderkid signed for Chelsea from Lens as a 16-year-old in 2007 under highly controversial circumstances.

Chelsea’s scout at the time, Guy Hillion, encouraged Chelsea to sign the youngster after describing him as “the most gifted player of his generation”, and he was drafted into The Blues’ Cobham academy set-up.

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Kakuta starred while in the Chelsea academy, winning Academy Player of The Year in his maiden season at the club.

He also drew praise from Michael Ballack, who played with Kakuta in Chelsea’s reserves while recovering from an injury.

He told journalists at the time: “Go see the French lad, he’s a star”

But in 2009, when Kakuta was promoted to the Chelsea first team, Fifa investigated the transfer that brought him to West London in 2007.

It was found that Chelsea had illegally encouraged the youngster to break his contract with Lens and The Blues’ were slapped with a two window transfer ban.

Kakuta was also banned from football for four months and slapped with a £665,000 fine, which prevented him from hitting the ground running.

Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk