How Belgium turned from an average footballing nation to a world-class one

Heroes that brought back the glory days

FIFA World Cup 2006 saw the noticeable absence of a team that featured in every edition of the tournament since 1978. 2010 World Cup missed that team too. Were these absences expected? A lot would say that they were not surprised. The downfall had started a long time ago.

Belgium, a country divided between 2 different cultures, was united only by their national sport football. Yet, a poor and disappointing run for a number of years, saw the morale of the flag bearers of the sport in the country falling lower and lower.

Not qualifying for 2 FIFA World Cups in succession, thrashed in the Group Stages of the 1st Euro participation in 16 years – when qualified only as a host team, no presence in Euro finals for a couple of editions. Something had to be done, and something had to be done quickly to bring back the far gone days of football in Belgium.

Though the blue-print was already laid in 2001, by Michel Sablon, the technical football director of the Football Association of Belgium, it was easier said than implemented in the country, and the constant failures at the world stages did not help the cause either. But his did not deter Sablon from his goal.

He had a vision, and he worked year after year, holding meeting with people who run school level football to every Juniper League club to directors from other footballing nations, trying to find the perfect model for the Belgian Football.

Sablon decided that they need to change the mentality of the teams, starting at a very young level. He asked specific football schools and even Juniper league clubs to change their formation, asking them to play 4-3-3 no matter what level team they are playing. This was easier said than done.

The clubs, they play to win matches, not to do a charity to the Belgian Football. It took a lot of convincing and gradually the clubs fell in line when they realized that it did make a lot of their players better.

Youth level models were changed. The U-17s were not straight away put on a full-sized field, and 5-on-5 and 6-on-6 games were encouraged at junior level. It took years but as predicted by Sablon, but these changes at every level started to pay dividends.

In 2007, in European U-17 championships, the Belgian team reached the semi-finals. In Beijing Olympics next year, Belgium finished fourth. These were the success that went a long way in motivating the players as well as the Juniper League clubs to keep giving more and more for the country which saw Belgium gradually rise in the FIFA rankings to 11th currently from 27th in 2001 when Sablon decided to change the face of the Belgium football.

The current Belgian squad has some of the well known names of world football, most players are plying their trade in Europe’s elite football leagues (16 of them in EPL), where you see Hazard, Lukaku, Vertonghen, Kompany, Fellaini – these players started showing their talent at a very young age – all thanks to the development system that Belgian Football adapted.

Sablon is certainly the lesser known hero of the Belgian football revolution when you compare him to players, but he has definitely taken football mentoring to the next level, changing everything that he deemed necessary to bring back the glory days of Belgian football.

The motivation is back, the good results are coming back, Belgian footbal has announced itself back in the international circuit with a bang – qualifying by finishing first in their group for the Brazil World Cup, and the players are flourishing in football leagues in Europe, but sitting in his office in Belgium football headquarters in Brussels, Sablon knows that the story is not even half-finished yet and the work that what he started needs to be carried on and improvised from time to time.

Belgium has seen the terrible days in football and it will not fall into the same pits again in the country. There are many more Hazards and Lukakus waiting in line and Sablon’s layout will nurture their talent to make Belgium the best of the lot.