Continuing our Footballing Pipelines series, Ryan Keaney looks at Belgium, where there must have been something in the water 20 years ago. There are fine players appearing all over, although it doesn’t appear to be down to any kind of masterplan…
There are a number of reasons why Belgium should be very good at producing incredibly capable young players.
Following Euro 2000, a tournament that they co-hosted, both the Belgian and Dutch football associations invested €10 million into grass roots football and youth development. Despite not making it out of their group in the tournament, it was supposed to help re-start Belgium as a footballing nation after a rather poor decade in the 1990s.
Another €10 million followed in 2005 for the construction of a national football centre in Tubize. It was supposed to boost six football pitches and full furnish changing rooms across a 23 acre site. There should also be a five star hotel resort and two restaurants that play host to every national side’s training camps.
Six years on from the first brick being laid, and it currently only houses the administrative staff of the Royal Belgian Football Association, as well as being the location of the national team manager’s office.
Traditionally of course, Belgian clubs have had to produce their own players thanks to more prestigious leagues situated on their every border.
A Belgian club has never won the European Cup/Champions League and the last UEFA Cup/Europa League victory came in 1988 when KV Mechelen lifted the trophy. It makes it difficult for the very best players to be retained within the league and has led to it acting as an unfortunate feeder league for richer nations nearby.
As John Chapman explains on the excellent BelgoFoot, the Jupiler League itself is a bit of a mess right now. There is constant in-fighting amongst the clubs as they try to work how they should reform what is a recently reformed league. The crux of the matter boils down to money. The bigger sides want to make sure they get more than their fair share of the relatively low (by European standards) television rights, whereas the smaller clubs are just keen to secure their futures.
It means little time has been spent on producing a collective system to help nurture the very best young players up the league. Standard Liege have their own, very successful academy; but they stand very much along in comparison to their league rivals.
Despite all these many reasons as to why Belgium should have a well-oiled blueprint, something the rest of Europe should be envious of, the current healthy state of their national side and the vast array of blossoming talents across the European leagues is a little bit of an accident.
A great big brilliant accident.
Of course, it would be rude to start anywhere other than Lille’s sensational forward Eden Hazard, who was re-located to France by his father as a youngster so that he could benefit from their national program. The 20 year-old seems to add names to the potential list of suitors with every passing week as he continues to impress for last season’s surprise Ligue 1 winners.
Lille were far from favorites for the title and their triumph was in no small way down to the form of the versatile Hazard. Blessed with two gifted feet, an adaptability that sees him playing across the frontline and in a system that he has grown up playing; Hazard was linked with a different move away from France seemingly every minute of the summer transfer window. Winner of the Ligue 1 Player of the Year last term, Hazard has taken to the Champions League rather well so far and will no doubt move on in the summer.
Eden and his younger brother Thorgen aren’t the only Belgian players to have benefited from getting their footballing educations away from Belgium. Arsenal’s Thomas Vermaelen and Fulham’s Moussa Démbéle came through the youth ranks in the Netherlands; much like Ajax’s current defensive pair of Jan Vertonghen and Toby Alderweireld.
Alderweireld, a member of the 2010 Don Balon best 100 young players list, has established himself in the last twelve months as a regular name on the team sheets of both club and country. Many have likened Toby to the slightly older Vertonghen who seems on the verge of a move away from Ajax.
Both players are solid, competent defenders who like to score goals; similar in many ways to Vermaelen, who left Amsterdam for London in 2009.
Over in Enidhoven, Dreis Mertens has started his time as a PSV player in sparkling form. The 24 year-old winger, part of a €13 million deal in the summer, had to look elsewhere to get his chance while a youth player with AA Gent. A loan move to the Dutch second division allowed him a chance with AGOVV; a chance he has made sure to take.
Merterns has made the wide-left position his own, mixing fine control with genuine pace to frightening effect. He possesses an incredible set of key skills that have already helped him attract interest from other European teams, despite only being a PSV player for just five months.
The number of impressive talents still playing their trade in Belgium continues to dwindle. More and more are finding their way to the Netherlands and other leagues so that they can benefit in the same manner as a string of the current internationals. Funso Ojo and Mats Rits are two such names.
In Belgium, Kevin De Bruyne remains the headline name even if he has struggled to impress sufficiently in the Champions League. It appears only a matter of time before the Racing Genk midfielder pitches up in a more established league, just like Steven Defour, Axel Witsel and Dedryck Boyata before him.
In recent months, Andre Villas-Boas’ Chelsea revolution has taken to snapping up Belgian youngsters. Goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois and powerful frontman Romelu Lukaku were signed by the Stamford Bridge club over the summer; with the future very much in mind.
Courtois, who has been loaned to Atletico Madrid for the season, has already made little secret of the fact that he has arrived in England to unseat Petr Cech from the coveted number one spot. His height, fine reactions and incredible confidence are all signs that point to him one day joining the elite band of goalkeepers at the very top of the game.
Lukaku remains the one player with the biggest question mark over him. The 18 year-old possesses the body of a 26 year-old and much of his very early success, which saw him leading the Jupiler League scoring charts, has been attributed to his phenomenal early development more so than any outstanding technique or intuition. That said; he could just be the striker that Belgium need to make sure this incredible generation of players achieve everything that they can.
Many thanks to Chris Mayer of The Belgian Waffle and John Chapman of Belgofoot for their assistance.
