Real Madrid to announce £86m signing of Hazard after Chelsea's Europa final clash

London: Real Madrid will wait until after Chelsea's Europa League final clash against Arsenal to announce the signing of Eden Hazard, according to reports in France.

The Belgian has one year remaining on his deal at Stamford Bridge and he confirmed on Sunday that he'd informed the club of his decision 'weeks ago'. While Hazard did not specify what his decision was, it's believed he's told Chelsea that he wants the chance to complete a dream move to Madrid to play under Zinedine Zidane. Zidane wants Hazard in for the start of pre-season and Madrid wanted to announce the deal as soon as possible.

However, Chelsea play Premier League rivals Arsenal in the final in Baku in a fortnight and L'Equipe claim Real will do the Blues the courtesy of waiting until after the game to announce the signing. A fee of €100m — roughly £86m — is said to have been agreed several weeks ago, while Hazard is set to become one of the club's highest earners.

Chelsea signed Christian Pulisic in January for £58m as a replacement for Hazard and the club must deal with the exit of the Belgian during a two-window transfer ban issued by FIFA. Hazard joined the Blues in 2012 and won two league titles, one Europa League, one FA Cup and one League Cup during his seven years with the club. He was crowned PFA Player of the year in 2015 after an eye-catching season under Jose Mourinho.

Meanwhile, Chelsea manager Maurizio Sarri said earlier he was still in the dark over Hazard's future.

Hazard has talked about it being "a dream" to one day play for Real Madrid boss Zinedine Zidane but Sarri said he did not know if the playmaker was set to leave swap London for Madrid. "I hope of course, like every fan of Chelsea, that he will remain with us," he said.

"But at the moment I don't know." "I know very well that Eden tried to do his best for seven seasons at Chelsea," the Blues boss added. "He did very well, he has become one of the best two or three players in the world, but I think also that we have to respect him and his decision."

Sarri also cast doubt over his own position and could not say for sure if he will be at Stamford Bridge for a second season. "I think but I am not sure. I don't know. I can say only the club asked me to get into the Champions League and we reached the target — the Champions League."

"As you know very well, I love English football."