Belgium won bronze at the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Now the national team is in a dark crisis. According to the Belgian media, fierce arguments tore both the team and the Belgian Football Association apart.
Belgium finished behind Morocco and Croatia in their World Cup group. It started the tournament with a narrow 1–0 win over Canada. Then it lost to Morocco 0–2. In their last group game, Belgium ended up in a goalless draw with Croatia despite numerous chances.
Read more: Belgium’s agony boiled down to incredible waste – see all Romelu Lukaku’s highlights and post-match rage
So Belgium will not be seen in the playoffs of the ongoing World Cup, and it still shocks the country.
Spanish pilot Roberto Martinez coached the national team since 2016. Martinez announced after the first group of the World Cup that he was leaving his position.
Martinez’s attorney Jesse De Preter has loaded hard text According to Le Soir magazine (you will switch to another service). The lawyer barked at the Belgian Football Association, which, according to him, is responsible for Martinez’s departure.
According to De Preter, the Belgian federation had previously announced that they wanted to extend Martinez’s contract, but had second thoughts. This made Martinez draw his own conclusion after the first block.
– Martinez was the best coach in Belgian history. This is a huge loss for Belgian football. But the fans don’t know what has happened behind the scenes, De Preter uploaded.
– When the football association is managed like this, misunderstandings arise. Roberto respects himself. For six years, he thought he had a close relationship with the leaders. Now some are happy about his departure, De Preter continued to wonder.
The Belgian Football Association was scheduled to hold a meeting and press conference on Monday. However, this has been postponed. According to Le Soir (you will switch to another service) Belgian federation boss Peter Bossaert and the rest of the government is at odds.
According to the newspaper, the reason for this is, among other things, that Bossaert had not agreed to prepare for Martinez’s departure and changes in the national team, even though other members of the board had demanded it.
During the World Cup, there was turmoil within the national team, and clashes between star players were reported diligently. Star players Kevin De Bruyne and the captain Eden Hazard had given skeptical comments about the team’s chances. French magazine According to L’Equipe (you will switch to another service) disagreements came to a head after the defeat against Morocco Jan Vertonghen’s to a confrontation with Hazard and De Bruyne in the dressing room.
The prestigious sports media The Athletic has published a comprehensive article (you will switch to another service) with the title: “How Belgium’s World Cup turned toxic”.
One of the long-standing problems in the national team was a dispute over the language. Some of the players, like Vertonghen and De Bruyne, speak a Flemish dialect, while for example Axel Witsel and Hazard French.
When Martinez became the coach, he made it a point to speak English in the team. Martinez is fluent in Spanish and English, but not French or Flemish. At first, the players were satisfied with the uniform line. According to The Athletic, the group that reached the bronze medal at the Belgian World Cup 2018 was very united.
The player’s wife told about “awkward” barbecue parties
According to Athletic, before the World Cup in Qatar, the team split into more and more cliques again.
Some of the players were happy with Martinez, but others, according to Athletic, were critical of the fact that Martinez has not been able to reform the group.
– The lack of a lingua franca (universal language) was not the reason for the collapse of the Belgian World Cup tournament, but it was one of the many symptoms of how things had gone wrong. It sparked a lot of discussion and finger-pointing about what went wrong. That happened a lot in Qatar, Athletic claims.
According to Athletic, problems were also caused by, for example, the strict rules Martinez had created for the team for the World Cup tournament. The players didn’t get to see their families much, even though the games are held in short distances in Qatar.
One day, however, a traditional barbecue party was organized for the players and their families. Striker by Dries Mertens wife Kat Kerkhofs had, according to Athletic, told the Midmid Mondial podcast that the event was “very awkward” due to the tense interactions between the players.
The general consensus in Belgium at the moment is that the Martinez era was a “disaster”. This despite the fact that Belgium was number one in the Fifa ranking for three and a half years – until March 2022, when the place went to Brazil. After September 2016, of the next 58 games, Belgium won 46 and lost just three times.
In terms of play, Martinez changed Belgium’s playing from active and pressing to more cautious, relying on counterattacks. The reason was, for example, Hazard’s and Romelu Lukaku’s injuries and poor playing condition. According to Athletic, Martinez no longer trusted the strengths of his players, but only tried to patch up the weaknesses.
Why didn’t Martinez have the guts to replace Hazard in the starting lineup, for example With Leandro Trossardi or Jeremy at Doku, Athletic sources wonder. It wasn’t until the last group game against Croatia that Trossard got to start and Hazard started on the bench.
– Some of the players lost faith in Martinez after the European Championships. After Holland beat them in the Nations League, some players talked to each other about how they would like to have Louis van Gaal like a coach, Athletic’s revelations continue.
Courtois: “We are not the golden generation”
After L’Equipe reported on the alleged squabbles in the Belgian dressing room, the national team marched captain Hazard and the experienced goalkeeper to a press conference Thibaut Courtois to calm the situation. On the other hand, the press conference offered more water to the mill when Courtois raged that “who has spread false information to the media”.
– If there is a mole in the team with a big imagination and he is found, this will be his last day in the team.
Arguments can be exaggerated. It is normal for some players on the team to be very warm, while others are not. However, according to Athletic, the team is a topper Vincent Kompany after the termination, the missing manager holding the conflicts.
The World Cup was the last chance of the “golden generation”.
– You can’t call us by that name when we didn’t win anything. We are not the golden generation, Real Madrid’s star goalkeeper Courtois stated According to Nieuwsblad (you will switch to another service).
– We are a generation of talented and great players. In these World Cups and the last European Championships, we were not at our level. It’s a bit embarrassing.