Eden Hazard can match Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo to win Ballon d'Or, says Chelsea team-mate Cesar Azpilicueta

Chelsea defender Cesar Azplicueta believes his team-mate Eden Hazard will one day be ranked alongside Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo and win the Ballon d'Or. 

Either Messi or Ronaldo has won the prize on the last seven occasions, with the Barcelona forward winning four, and the Real Madrid star three.

But Azpilicueta believes Hazard has the ability to break the La Liga duo's monopoly and claim the top individual award in world football. Although he maintains his 24-year-old team-mate is more concerned with winning team trophies than individual honors

'We are talking about two monsters of football today,' Azpilicueta told Marca of Messi and Ronaldo.

'Eden is a great player, younger than them, and therefore has more capacity for improvement.

'I think in the future he could win the Ballon d'Or, he has the quality to it, but I see more focus on titles than achieving individual trophies. But yes, he has great quality and I think in the future we will see with the trophy in his hands.' 

Hazard signed for Chelsea in 2012, and has so far gone on to score 44 goals in 147 games in all competitions for the club, as well as winning the Europa League in 2013 and last Sunday's Capital One Cup.

Last month, he signed a new five-and-half-year deal to secure his long-term future at Stamford Bridge.