Belgijsko čudo

Jedan tekst koji malo pobliže objašnjava Belgijsko čudo ... sad im dolazi još jedna vrhunska generacija:

When Turkey eliminated Belgium, beating them in the final group game in Euro 2000, the host nation mourned and that itself was the proverbial push. The Belgium NT had become a pale shadow of the team that produced one of World Cup football’s greatest matches ever against the Soviet Union en route to a fourth place finish in 1986. This stark lack of quality and fall from grace didn’t go unnoticed by the Belgian FA, who developed a blueprint aiming to change the country’s footballing philosophy and target a sustainable growth in the future.

The proposed move began with overhauling the typecast professional approach of team development and introducing a more enjoyable approach to the game in the form of player development. Michel Sablon, a former player, assumed the role of technical director and that in itself was a huge turning point for the country’s fortunes. The focus was on education, right from the basics of being comfortable with ball at feet to the complexities of team dynamics and tactics, every player was educated step by step. Players know their roles at an early age and that helps them gel in to the system. What’s interesting is that there is not much attention given to physical strength at an initial stage of a player’s development; instead the greater focus is on technical skill development.

Another very important aspect is the adsorbed familiarity to match conditions after spending hours on the training ground. Replicating and applying the skills honed and embodied at the training ground in a match environment is best possible when the two resemble each other in more ways than one. The whole ideology, to fabricate a flexible comfort zone for players from a young age, is what has paved way for the successful conveyor belt of talents coming out from Belgium. But the Belgian FA can only do as much as put in a plan, the execution would have been impossible without the active participation of the clubs.


Each and every team in Belgium are preached to practice a 4-3-3 system playing high tempo football, and this approach is made not only at club level or national level but at every age level. Michel Sablon believes more than 90% clubs and teams comply and this gives the national team a much clearer outlook in its methodologies. Key elements such as marking in zones to hone decision making skills, providing experience in matches, not discriminating before the teens and providing equal game time not only bring about a fee-good factor in the camp but also install immense confidence and a freedom of application with the football. In most countries, even countries having the best leagues in the world, there is a barrage of instructions from the sidelines, almost forcing the player to make a decision. In Belgium, the approach is much more open-minded. Unlike elsewhere, even after a below-par performance or two, young players are not subbed out or frozen out on the sidelines.

The amount of opportunity available is spectacular to say the least, and the results have hardly been disappointing thus far. While in England players are often scouted if they possess a certain level of physical bulk, in Belgium the coaches and training staff refuse to judge a player until they mature fully. There is a strong belief that players can well and truly be late bloomers, and the later one develops in his teens the better it is. Not a viewpoint many would agree with, but the pool of talent in Belgium is segregated after the age of 14 into players who are early and late developers. With the sort of players blossoming from the system, not many would complain. However the bigger problem arrives when the hotly tipped youngsters fly away across the continent serving the bigger clubs.