Eric Daels (born 4 August 1936 in Wevelgem, West Flanders) is a retired Belgian footballer.

Career

Daels started playing football at the age of 14 with his local team SV Wevelgem. He soon made fame as a speedy

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

. Daels was discovered by

Club Brugge (), known simply as Club Brugge (in English also: ''Club Bruges''), is a Belgian professional football club based in Bruges, Belgium. It was founded in 1891 and its home ground is the Jan Breydel Stadium, which has a capacity of 29,062.

in a match against Wevelgem. Club got a hard time winning, and afterwards, Club Brugge coach

Lucien Masyn Lucien is a male given name. It is the French form of Luciano or Latin ''Lucianus'', patronymic of Lucius. Lucien, Saint Lucien, or Saint-Lucien may also refer to: People Given name * Lucien of Beauvais, Christian saint *Lucien, a band member ...

insisted on the recruitment of Eric Daels in the blue and black ranks. However, the Club Brugge board considered the transfer fee too high. A few season later, Daels got his transfer to Bruges: Cercle Brugge bought the player. Daels made his debut for Cercle against White Star in a 3–1 home victory. He had an important role in Cercle winning

Belgian Second Division The Belgian Second Division (known as the Proximus League for sponsorship reasons) was the second-highest division in the Belgian football league system, one level below the Belgian Pro League. It was founded by the Royal Belgian Football Associa ...

that season. Daels was transferred to Excelsior Mouscron after the 1964–65 season, a transfer Daels actually did not want. After 1 season at Mouscron and 3 seasons with

White Star Lauwe White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...

, he became player-coach for SV Moorsele, KEG Gistel, HO Wingene and KWS Houthulst. After Daels quit his playing career, he became manager for FC Knokke,

Club Roeselare Club may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Club'' (magazine) * Club, a ''Yie Ar Kung-Fu'' character * Clubs (suit), a suit of playing cards * Club music * "Club", by Kelsea Ballerini from the album '' kelsea'' Brands and enterprise ...

, Daring Ruddervoorde, FC Moerkerke, SC Beernem and FC Varsenare.

External links

Eric Daels
a
Cerclemuseum.be
1936 births Living people People from Wevelgem Belgian men's footballers Men's association football forwards Cercle Brugge K.S.V. players Belgian Pro League players Royal Excel Mouscron players Player-coaches Belgian football managers Footballers from West Flanders {{Belgium-footy-forward-stub