Chelsea star Eden Hazard backed to win the Ballon d'Or by Belgium team-mate Radja Nainggolan

Chelsea star Eden Hazard could eventually go on to win the Ballon d’Or, according to his Belgium international team-mate Radja Nainggolan.

Hazard finished eighth in voting for world football’s most prestigious individual honour in 2015 but no player has broken Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi’s duopoly over the prize since the former first won the prize in 2008.

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Neither player is showing any sign of significantly slowing down even as they enter their 30s but a clutch of stars, including Paris St Germain’s world record signing Neymar and star of Euro 2016 Antoine Griezmann, are waiting in the wings.

Roma midfielder Nainggolan is convinced that Hazard, Chelsea’s star man in their 2015 and 2017 title wins, should be considered among that group.

“I think he has the capacity to win it because, for me, he is a very talented player, a very good player, a decisive player,” Nainggolan told CNN Sport.

“He makes a difference on the pitch, but the only difference between him and, let's say, Neymar, Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi, is that they score much more than him.

“That is the most important thing and it's the only difference between them, because for me Hazard is, let's say, is in world's top five.”

Hazard will be unable to state his case in the early weeks of the Premier League season as he continues his recovery from an ankle fracture, an injury that is likely to rule him out of a reunion with Nainggolan when Roberto Martinez’s Belgium squad meet up later this month.