Erwin Vandenbergh (; born 26 January 1959) is a Belgian retired football who played as a

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 ...

. Between 1979 and 1991, he finished six times topscorer of the

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 team ...

(a record as of 2020), with three clubs (the first three with Lierse, the following two with Anderlecht, and the last one with

Gent Gent is a shortened form of the word gentleman. It may also refer to: * Ghent (Dutch language, Dutch: Gent), a Belgian city ** K.A.A. Gent, a football club from Ghent ** K.R.C. Gent, a football club from Ghent ** Gent RFC, a rugby club in Ghen ...

). In 1980, he was European topscorer with 39 goals out of 34 games. As a Belgium national team regular, Vandenbergh scored a memorable victory goal against Argentina in the opening game of the 1982 World Cup in Spain. Vandenbergh also played for the French club

Lille Lille ( , ; nl, Rijsel ; pcd, Lile; vls, Rysel) is a city in the northern part of France, in French Flanders. On the river Deûle, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France Regions of France, region, the Pref ...

with his Belgian national team partner Filip Desmet under the management of another fellow Belgian

Georges Heylens Georges Heylens (born 8 August 1941 in Etterbeek) is a Belgian former footballer. He played with R.S.C. Anderlecht and the Belgium national football team. He took part in the match between Belgium and the Netherlands in 1964, with 10 teammates ...

. His son,

Kevin Vandenbergh Kevin Vandenbergh (; born 16 May 1983) is a Belgian former professional footballer who plays as a forward for Ramsel in the Belgian Provincial Leagues. His father, Erwin Vandenbergh, was one of the most prolific strikers in the 1980s for Belg ...

, has also become a professional football striker.

Honours

Anderlecht *

: 1984–85, 1985–86 *

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 ...

: 1985 *

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 ...

: 1982–83; runners-up 1983–84 *

Jules Pappaert Cup Trophy Jules Pappaert or Pappaert cup is a Belgian football trophy since 1953 and is awarded annually to a club in the first, second or third division of the Belgian Pro League with the longest uninterrupted series of unbeaten games. The award is ...

: 1977, 1983, 1985 *

Bruges Matins The Matins of Bruges ( nl, Brugse Metten) was the nocturnal massacre of the French garrison in Bruges and their supporters, a political faction in favour of French rule, on 18 May 1302 by the members of the local Flemish militia. It has been ...

: 1985 Belgium *

UEFA European Championship The UEFA European Football Championship, less formally the European Championship and informally the Euro, is the primary association football tournament organised by the Union of European Football Associations ( UEFA). The competition is conte ...

: runners-up 1980 *

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...

: fourth place 1986 * Belgian Sports Merit Award: 1980 Individual * Belgian First Division top scorer: 1979–80 (39 goals), 1980–81 (24 goals), 1981–82 (25 goals), 1982–83 (20 goals), 1985–86 (27 goals), 1990–91 (23 goals) *

European Golden Shoe The European Golden Shoe, also known as European Golden Boot, is an award that is presented each season to the leading goalscorer in league matches from the top division of a European national league. The trophy is a sculpture of a football boo ...

: 1979–80 (39 goals) *

Ballon d'Or The Ballon d'Or (; ) is an annual association football, football award presented by French news magazine ''France Football'' since 1956. Between 2010 and 2015, in an agreement with FIFA, the award was temporarily merged with the FIFA World Pl ...

nominations: 1980, 1983 *

Belgian Golden Shoe In association football, the Belgian Golden Shoe ( nl, Gouden Schoen, french: Soulier d'Or) is an award given in Belgium at the beginning of each civil year to the best footballer of the Belgian First Division A for the past year. The trophy is spon ...

: 1981 * UEFA Cup top scorer: 1982–83 (seven goals) *

UEFA Euro 1984 qualifying The qualifying round for the 1984 European Football Championship consisted of 32 teams divided into seven groups; three of four teams and four of five teams. The qualifying round was played at various times between May 1982 and December 1983, wit ...

: Group 1 top scorer (four goals) * Best AA Gent-Player of the Season: 1990–91

References

External links

* * * * 1959 births Living people Flemish sportspeople Belgian footballers Association football forwards Belgium international footballers Belgian First Division A players Lierse S.K. players R.S.C. Anderlecht players Lille OSC players Ligue 1 players Belgian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in France K.A.A. Gent players R.W.D. Molenbeek players UEFA Euro 1980 players 1982 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Euro 1984 players 1986 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Cup winning players {{Belgium-footy-forward-stub