Belgium’s Junior Team: Will Vincent Kompany help the young “Red Devils”?

As early as 1895 the Belgians founded their Football Association, which today registers about 400,000 players with just 1,876 clubs. In 1904 Belgium was one of the co-founders of FIFA. In 1954 they were affiliated to UEFA. The highlights for Belgian football were recorded in 1972 when Belgium hosted the senior UEFA European Football Championship™ and finished third; in 1980 at the UEFA European Football Championship™ in Italy when the Belgian team lost to Germany in the final; and in 2000 when Belgium and their neighbours Netherlands co-hosted the UEFA European Football Championship™.

When it comes to the results in European youth and junior tournaments the successes for Belgian footballers are rather few and far between. The country has never made it into the finals in the UEFA-Under 21 competitions, and neither did the Flemings and Walloons reach any UEFA Under-19 finals. Thus it is heralded as an overdue success that Belgium has qualified for the UEFA European Under-21 Championship 2007 finals in the Netherlands, to play in Group A against Israel, Portugal and the host team.

The team coached by former international Jean-Francois de Sart has earned a good reputation in junior football in the recent past. In 2004 and 2006 Belgium gained 24 points from ten preliminary-round matches and won their group, leaving Serbia, Spain, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Lithuania and San Marino trailing. In the play-off matches for the 2004 finals Belgium had to play Ukraine. They won the away mach 3-2 and were leading 1-0 at home 10 minutes from time, but in the end lost 3-1. They were eliminated with a goal tally of 4-5.

Jean-Francois de Sart, who played for many years with Liège and then RSC Anderlecht, later admitted: “It took long a time to overcome this shock. But that’s football.” This season his juniors have fared better. The team won their qualifying matches in Ireland 1-0 and against Greece 2-1. Though they only achieved a 1-1 draw at home against Bulgaria in the play-off matches, they won their away game in Bulgaria 4-1 and thus progressed to the finals in the Netherlands undefeated.

Coach de Sart is said to be the guiding hand. The coloured schoolmaster has a great deal of experience dealing with young people, and has been working for the National Association since 1995.

His positions so far: assistant coach of the Belgian UEFA Under-13 selection (1995-1996), assistant coach of the Belgian UEFA Under-21 team (1996-1997) and of the UEFA U-19 squad (1997-1999). After that he led his mini “Red Devils” into the play-off matches for the UEFA European Under-21 Championship 2002 finals with a win over Sweden. Since the above mentioned disappointment the Belgians have now succeeded in 2006.

Jean-Francois de Sart has reached only his first goal. He wants to lead his team to the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. He openly disclosed his aims prior to the tournament in the Netherlands: “Our first goal was to qualify for the finals. That’s what we did. It’s an important step and a great satisfaction for the team. The next aim now is to reach the semi-finals and thus qualify for the Olympic Games in China”.

It is interesting that in the list of players for the team playing in the Netherlands, and possibly in China, the country’s most popular player is missing. Vincent Kompany, the Belgian “Footballer of the Year” who has his roots in the Congo, is just 20 years old and already playing with the main “Red Devils”. It is still open whether Jean-Francois de Sart will call the Hamburger SV defender back for the UEFA European Under-21 Championship. It would be a trump card in the fight to make the Olympics.