Raymond Van Gestel (20 January 1930 – 17 April 2020) 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 ...

, athlete and

pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators, because they a ...

.Mon Van Gestel overleden
lyralierse.be, 19 April 2020, source in Dutch He spent most of his career with

Lyra Lyra (; Latin for lyre, from Greek ''λύρα'') is a small constellation. It is one of the 48 listed by the 2nd century astronomer Ptolemy, and is one of the modern 88 constellations recognized by the International Astronomical Union. Lyra was ...

.Voormalig Rode Duivel en luchtvaarticoon Mon Van Gestel sterft op 90-jarige leeftijd
hln.be, 19 April 2020, article in Dutch

Club career

Born in Mol, Van Gestel played as a

right 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 ...

for SV Mol,

and Verbroedering Geel. In total he played 57 games in the first division scoring a total of 32 goals. In 1954, when Lyra were promoted to the First Division, he suffered a severe knee injury, largely ending his career. In total he played 168 league games for Lyra, scoring 92 goals.

International career

During his career he also earned 5 caps for the Belgium national team between 1951 and 1953, scoring 2 goals. Both goals came against Spain on 10 June 1951; the first goal was scored after only 17 seconds in the game, giving him the then-record of the fastest goal scored for the national team. Following the game against Spain he was nicknamed ''Raimundo el rapido'' and he was close to a transfer to Spanish club

Espanyol Reial Club Deportiu Espanyol de Barcelona (; "Royal Spanish Sports Club of Barcelona"), commonly known as Espanyol, is a professional sports club based in Barcelona, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top tier of the Spanish football league sy ...

, but Lyra refused the deal. In 1954 he was selected for the Belgian squad for the

World Cup 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 ...

in Zürich, but he could not join the team due to a military mission in Africa as a fighter pilot with the

Belgian air force The Belgian Air Component ( nl, Luchtcomponent, french: Composante air) is the air arm of the Belgian Armed Forces, and until January 2002 it was officially known as the Belgian Air Force ( nl, Belgische Luchtmacht; french: Force aérienne belg ...

.Hoe is het met? Mon Van Gestel
rtv.be, 24 juni 2018, article in Dutch

Athletics career

He was also active as an athlete in the long jump and sprints. He was the Belgian

long jump The long jump is a track and field event in which athletes combine speed, strength and agility in an attempt to leap as far as possible from a takeoff point. Along with the triple jump, the two events that measure jumping for distance as a gr ...

champion.Mon Van Gestel: held op het sportveld en in het luchtruim
onderox.be, Jef Aerts, article in Dutch Due to his versatility he is one of the few Belgian athletes ever to compete in different sports at an international level in the same year.

Later life and death

Van Gestel was a

Fighter pilot A fighter pilot is a military aviator trained to engage in air-to-air combat, air-to-ground combat and sometimes electronic warfare while in the cockpit of a fighter aircraft. Fighter pilots undergo specialized training in aerial warfare and ...

for the Belgian air force and flight instructor.Keiheuvel fly-in 2018
motorvliegen.be, 2018, blz. 6 As an instructor he trained around 2000 students.Luchtvaarticoon en ex-Rode Duivel Mon Van Gestel (90) overleden
rtv.be, 18 April 2020 Together with his brother he was also one of the founding members of the Belgian

Flying club A flying club or aero club is a not-for-profit, member-run organization that provides its members with affordable access to aircraft. Many clubs also provide flight training, flight planning facilities, pilot supplies and associated services, as ...

Keiheuvel.Gewezen Rode Duivel en mede-oprichter van vliegclub Keiheuvel Mon Van Gestel (90) overleden: “Zijn veelzijdigheid was indrukwekkend
hln.be, Wouter Demuynck, 19 April 2020, article in DutchEx-Rode Duivel en bezieler Aeroclub Keiheuvel overleden
gva.be, mto, 19 April 2020, article in dutch He died in Mol on 17 April 2020, aged 90.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Van Gestel, Raymond 1930 births 2020 deaths Belgian men's footballers Belgium men's international footballers K. Lyra players K.F.C. Verbroedering Geel players Belgian Pro League players Men's association football wingers Challenger Pro League players People from Mol, Belgium Footballers from Antwerp Province