Birger Maertens (born 28 June 1980) is a Belgian former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

who played as a

centre back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either ...

. He obtained two caps for the Belgium national team.

Club career

Club Brugge

Born in

Bruges Bruges ( , nl, Brugge ) is the capital and largest city of the province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium, in the northwest of the country, and the sixth-largest city of the country by population. The area of the whole city a ...

, Maertens joined Club Brugge KV in 1994. He played his first game on 9 August 2001 against Icelandic side IA Akranes (4–0) in the

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...

Heracles Almelo

On 25 June 2008, Maertens joined the Dutch side Heracles Almelo. He signed a contract until 2011. In 2009 Birger Maertens was voted 8th best overall player in the

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; ''"Honour Division"'' or ''"Premier Division"'') is the highest level of professional football in the Netherlands. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start of professional football in the Netherlands. It is c ...

by Dutch football magazine Voetbal International. On 6 January 2012, it was announced he had left Heracles earlier than planned, due to personal reasons, to return to his native Belgium, and would not see out the rest of his contract.

International career

On 12 October 2005, Maertens collected his first cap for the Belgium national team in the qualification stages for the

2006 FIFA World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host th ...

against Lithuania (1–1).

Honours

Club Brugge *

Belgian First Division The Belgian Pro League,(officially the Jupiler Pro League due to sponsorship reasons with Jupiler), is the top league competition for association football clubs in Belgium. Contested by 18 clubs since the 2020–21 season and reduced to 16 te ...

: 2002–03, 2004–05 *

Belgian Cup The Belgian Cup (french: link=no, Coupe de Belgique; nl, Beker van België []; german: link=no, Belgischer Fußballpokal) is the main Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in Belgium, run by the Belgia ...

: 2001–02 Belgian Cup, 2001–02, 2004 Belgian Cup Final, 2003–04, 2006–07 *

Belgian Super Cup The Belgian Super Cup ( nl, Belgische Supercup, ; french: Supercoupe de Belgique; german: Belgischer Fußball-Super Cup), ''Pro League Supercup'', is a Belgian club competition played as a single match between the Belgian First Division A champio ...

: 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005

References

External links

* * 1980 births Living people Footballers from Bruges Belgian footballers Association football defenders Belgium youth international footballers Belgium under-21 international footballers Belgium international footballers Club Brugge KV players Heracles Almelo players K.V.C. Westerlo players Belgian Pro League players Belgian First Division B players Eredivisie players Belgian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in the Netherlands Belgian expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands {{belgium-footy-defender-stub