Jean-Louis Straetmans (26 September 1931 – 9 October 2016) was a Belgian

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 le ...

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 ...

. He made five appearances for the Belgium national team from 1952 to 1956.

Club career

Straetmans was born in

Woluwe-Saint-Pierre Woluwe-Saint-Pierre () or Sint-Pieters-Woluwe () is one of the 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium. Located in the eastern part of the region, it is bordered by Etterbeek, Auderghem and Woluwe-Saint-Lambert, as well as th ...

. He scored 151 goals in 273 matches in the

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 ...

for White Star, ranking fifth in the list of the league's top scorers as of 2008. He never played in the first tier. He retired from playing in 1959, after breaking his heel when he fell from a scaffolding while working as a painter.

International career

Named in Belgium's squad for the Group 2 qualification tournament for the

1954 FIFA World Cup The 1954 FIFA World Cup was the fifth edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football tournament for senior men's national teams of the nations affiliated to FIFA. It was held in Switzerland from 16 June to 4 July. Switzerla ...

, he scored goals that helped Belgium achieve qualification for the World Cup before missing out on the tournament through injury.

Personal life and death

After his retirement from playing Straetmans worked as a sporting director for White Star and Racing White. He was married to Monique Noël and owned a painting shop. He died on 9 October 2016, at the age of 85.

References

External links

* * 1931 births 2016 deaths Belgian men's footballers Footballers from Brussels Men's association football forwards Belgium men's international footballers Challenger Pro League players RWS Bruxelles players Place of birth missing {{Belgium-footy-bio-stub