Daniel Edouward Boffin (born 10 July 1965) 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

left winger A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

and current football coach. During his professional career, which spanned nearly two decades, he played for four clubs in his country – most notably Anderlecht – and one in France, appearing in nearly 600 official games as a professional. Boffin represented

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

in three

World Cups A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

, the last of which occurred when he was 37.

Club career

Born in

Sint-Truiden Sint-Truiden (; french: link=no, Saint-Trond ; li, Sintruin ) is a city and municipality located in the province of Limburg, Flemish Region, Belgium, and has over 41,500 inhabitants, which makes it one of the largest cities in Limburg. The mun ...

, Boffin began playing professionally for local Sint-Truidense VV, in the Belgian Second Division. After two solid years he moved to the Pro League with

RFC Liège Royal Football Club de Liège (more commonly known as RFC Liège) is a professional football club based in Liège, Belgium. It currently plays in the Belgian First Amateur Division. Its matricule is 4, meaning that it was the fourth club to reg ...

, appearing in

European competition The European Competition is a student competition in which students of all ages submit creative, artistic, or written pieces of work on the activities of the European Union. Tendered by European Movement Germany, it is the oldest student competition ...

with the club and also being instrumental as it won its first-ever domestic cup, in 1990. At the age of 26, after more than 150 official games for Liège, Boffin signed with national giants R.S.C. Anderlecht, continuing to be an undisputed starter in his career: in his first two seasons combined he scored 13 goals, helping lead the

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

-based team to three leagues in a row as five managers were in charge of the team during his six-year spell. On 8 December 1993, he scored with his (weak) right foot to take a 3–0 lead at

Werder Bremen Sportverein Werder Bremen von 1899 e. V. (), commonly known as Werder Bremen (), Werder or simply Bremen, is a German professional sports club based in Bremen, Free Hanseatic City of Bremen. Founded on 4 February 1899, they are best known for the ...

in the UEFA Champions League group stage, but the German club made an unlikely recovery to take the match 5–3. Boffin moved abroad aged 32 as he signed with

FC Metz Football Club de Metz, commonly referred to as FC Metz or simply Metz (), is a French association football club based in Metz, Lorraine. The club was formed in 1932 and plays in Ligue 2, the second division in the French football league sys ...

, where he was dubbed ''La

mobylette The Mobylette, sometimes shortened as Mob, is a model of moped by French manufacturer Motobécane during the second half of the 20th century. The Mobylette was launched in 1949 and was manufactured until 1997, with production numbers exceeding 14 ...

'' due to his speed. In his debut campaign, which started on 2 August 1997 with a 1–0 win at Olympique Lyonnais, he helped to a best-ever finish in Ligue 1, a second place; in spite of his age, he continued to feature regularly for the French side. In January 2001, Boffin returned to his first club, helping it always maintain its top flight status while the player posted the best scoring records of his career, with 11 and 12 goals in two separate seasons. He split his final year, 2003–04, with Sint-Truiden and

Standard Liège Royal Standard de Liège, commonly referred to as Standard Liège (; nl, Standard Luik ; german: Standard Lüttich ) or simply Standard in Belgium, is a Belgian professional football club based in the city of Liège. They are one of the most ...

, and eventually called it quits at 39 years of age, with totals of – in the Belgian top level alone – 415 matches and 67 goals (he still played some amateur football with VV Real Nieuwerkerken).

International career

Boffin played 53 games for the Belgium national team, during 13 years. His debut came on 23 August 1989, in a 3–0 friendly win with

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark , establish ...

. In the following decade, Boffin would be an important offensive member for the ''Diables Rouges'', being selected for the

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nelson ...

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...

and

2002 FIFA World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial football world championship for men's national teams organized by FIFA. It was held from 31 May to 30 June 2002 at sites in South Korea an ...

s, totalling five matches (only a squad member in the latter edition). Aged 35, he was overlooked for

UEFA Euro 2000 The 2000 UEFA European Football Championship, also known as Euro 2000, was the 11th UEFA European Championship, a football tournament held every four years and organised by UEFA, the sport's governing body in Europe. The finals tournament wa ...

, played on home soil.

Honours

FC Liège *

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 ...

: 1989–90 Anderlecht *

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 ...

1992–93 Year 199 ( CXCIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was sometimes known as year 952 '' Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 199 for this year has been used since t ...

, 1993–94, 1994–95 *

: 1993–94 Belgian Cup, 1993–94; runner-up 1996–97 Belgian Cup, 1996–97 * Belgian Supercup: 1991, 1993, 1994, 1995 Metz * Coupe de la Ligue: runner-up 1998–99 'Sint-Truiden' *

: runner-up 2002–03 Belgium * FIFA Fair Play Trophy:

2002 World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial football world championship for men's national teams organized by FIFA. It was held from 31 May to 30 June 2002 at sites in South Korea an ...

Individual * Man of the Season (Belgian First Division): 2001–02, 2002–03

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Boffin, Danny 1965 births Living people Sportspeople from Sint-Truiden Belgian men's footballers Men's association football wingers Belgian Pro League players Challenger Pro League players RFC Liège players R.S.C. Anderlecht players Sint-Truidense V.V. players Standard Liège players Ligue 1 players FC Metz players Belgium men's international footballers 1994 FIFA World Cup players 1998 FIFA World Cup players 2002 FIFA World Cup players Belgian expatriate men's footballers Belgian expatriate sportspeople in France Expatriate men's footballers in France Footballers from Limburg (Belgium)