René Vandereycken

René Vandereycken (born 22 July 1953) is a Belgian retired professional footballer and manager. During his playing career, he played as a midfielder. He was the head coach of the Belgium national team from 2006 to 2009.

René Vandereycken

Vandereycken in 1978
Personal information
Date of birth	(1953-07-22) 22 July 1953 (age 72)
Place of birth	Spalbeek, Belgium
Height	1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)
Position(s)	Midfielder
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1971–1974	KSC Hasselt
1974–1981	Club Brugge	233	(63)
1981–1983	Genoa	28	(0)
1983–1986	Anderlecht	94	(13)
1986–1987	Blau-Weiß 1890 Berlin	24	(0)
1987–1989	Gent	41	(1)
International career
1975–1986	Belgium	50	(3)
Managerial career
1989–1993	Gent
1993–1994	Standard Liège
1994–1997	R.W.D. Molenbeek
1997	Anderlecht
2000	Mainz 05
2002–2004	Twente
2004–2005	Genk
2006–2009	Belgium
Medal record Men's football Representing  Belgium UEFA European Championship Runner-up 1980 Italy
* Club domestic league appearances and goals

Club career

Vandereycken was born in Spalbeek. He played for Club Brugge, Genoa and Anderlecht.

International career

Vandereycken earned 50 caps and scored three goals for the Belgium national team. He represented the country at the 1980 UEFA European Championship, where they reached the final, in which he scored a penalty in a 2–1 loss to West Germany.

Coaching career

Vandereycken coached Twente as well as Anderlecht for some months and was fired by Genk in June 2005 after he managed to qualify the team for the UEFA Cup. He also managed Gent, Standard Liège, RWD Molenbeek and Mainz 05. Vandereycken is known to like the defensive play and to be a tactician.^{[citation needed]}

He was the head coach of the Belgium national team from January 2006 to April 2009. During this time, he was subject to criticism in the press for his tactical decisions.^{[citation needed]} He was sacked on 7 April 2009 following poor results in their 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign, including two back-to-back losses against Bosnia and Herzegovina.^[1][2]

Honours

Player

Club Brugge^[3]

• Belgian First Division: 1975–76, 1976–77, 1977–78, 1979–80
• Belgian Cup: 1976–77
• Belgian Super Cup: 1980
• European Champion Clubs' Cup runner-up: 1977–78
• UEFA Cup runner-up: 1975–76
• Japan Cup Kirin World Soccer: 1981^[4]
• Jules Pappaert Cup: 1978^[5]

Anderlecht^[6]

• Belgian First Division: 1984–85, 1985–86
• Belgian Super Cup: 1985
• UEFA Cup runner-up: 1983–84^[7]
• Bruges Matins: 1985^[8]
• Jules Pappaert Cup: 1983, 1985^[5]

Belgium

• UEFA European Championship runner-up: 1980^[9]
• FIFA World Cup fourth place: 1986^[10]
• Belgian Sports Merit Award: 1980^[11]

Manager

Individual

• Belgian Professional Manager of the Year: 1991^[12]