Ritchie Ria Alfons De Laet (, born 28 November 1988) is a Belgian 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 plays as a

right-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

for

Royal Antwerp Royal Antwerp Football Club, often referred to as Royal Antwerp or simply Antwerp, is a Belgian football club based in the city of Antwerp. Founded around 1880 as ''Antwerp Cricket Club'' by English students residing in Antwerp, 15 years before ...

in the Belgian First Division A. De Laet played for various youth teams before joining the

youth academy, where he was eventually picked up by Stoke City in 2007. Two years later, De Laet was signed by

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...

champions Manchester United where he mainly appeared for the reserves besides being sent on loan spells. In 2012, he joined

Leicester City Leicester ( ) is a city, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city lies on the River Soar and close to the eastern end of the National ...

where he played more consistently and was part of the historic team winning the

2015–16 Premier League The 2015–16 Premier League (known as the Barclays Premier League for sponsorship reasons) was the 24th season of the Premier League, the top English professional league for association football clubs, since its establishment in 1992, and the ...

. He then had a three-year stint with Aston Villa, before returning to Royal Antwerp in 2019. De Laet made his international debut for Belgium in 2009, and gained two caps for the national team.

Club career

Stoke City

Born in Antwerp, De Laet began his career at Belgian club

. On 17 August 2007, he signed a three-year contract with

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

team Stoke City for an initial £100,000 fee. In July 2008, De Laet joined AFC Bournemouth on trial and played his first game in a friendly against

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...

, a 4–1 defeat. However, he later returned to Stoke. In October 2008, he joined

Wrexham Wrexham ( ; cy, Wrecsam; ) is a city and the administrative centre of Wrexham County Borough in Wales. It is located between the Welsh mountains and the lower Dee Valley, near the border with Cheshire in England. Historically in the count ...

of the Conference National on a one-month loan deal, making his debut in a 2–0 victory over Lewes in the league. He made three appearances during his time at the club before his loan spell was terminated in order for him to undergo a hernia operation.

Manchester United

On 8 January 2009, De Laet was signed by

champions Manchester United on a three-year contract. The fee to be paid by Manchester United depended on appearances. After joining United, De Laet played exclusively for the club's reserve team. In March 2009, De Laet was named as one of five over-age players in the Manchester United under-18 squad for the Torneo Calcio Memorial Claudio Sassi-Sassuolo; he played in three of the five matches, and scored a penalty in the 5–3 semi-final

penalty shoot-out The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...

win over Modena to take the Red Devils into the final, in which they beat

Ajax Ajax may refer to: Greek mythology and tragedy * Ajax the Great, a Greek mythological hero, son of King Telamon and Periboea * Ajax the Lesser, a Greek mythological hero, son of Oileus, the king of Locris * ''Ajax'' (play), by the ancient Gree ...

1–0. De Laet made his first appearance for the Manchester United first team on 24 May 2009, when he was named at left back for the last game of the

2008–09 Premier League The 2008–09 Premier League (known as the Barclays Premier League for sponsorship reasons) was the 17th season since the establishment of the Premier League in 1992. Manchester United became champions for the 11th time on the penultimate wee ...

season against

Hull City Hull City Association Football Club is a professional football club based in Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England, that compete in the . They have played home games at the MKM Stadium since moving from Boothferry Park in 2002. The club's t ...

. In the 2009–10 season, De Laet featured in the

League Cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

, coming on as a substitute against

Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club (), commonly known as Wolves, is a professional football club based in Wolverhampton, England, which compete in the . The club has played at Molineux Stadium since moving from Dudley Road in 1889. The club's ...

and Barnsley in the third and fourth rounds and starting against

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English football. The team has playe ...

in the fifth. Despite a defensive injury crisis in November 2009, Alex Ferguson preferred to bring midfielder

Michael Carrick Michael Carrick (born 28 July 1981) is an English professional football manager and former player who is currently head coach of Middlesbrough. He is one of the most decorated English footballers of all time and is best known for his 12-year p ...

on for

Gary Neville Gary Alexander Neville (born 18 February 1975) is an English football pundit and former player. He is also a co-owner of English Football League club Salford City. After retiring from football in 2011, Neville went into punditry and was a comm ...

ahead of De Laet, after the United captain suffered a groin strain in the next league match away to

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club that plays its home matches in Stratford, East London. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club plays at the London Stadium, hav ...

on 5 December. He then played his first league game of the 2009–10 season on 15 December against Wolverhampton Wanderers. De Laet played his second league game against Fulham on 19 December, which ended in a 3–0 defeat. On 4 May 2010, he was voted as the Denzil Haroun Reserve Team Player of the Year, beating

Oliver Gill Oliver David Gill (born 15 September 1990) is an English former footballer who played as a defender for Manchester United. He also played for Bradford City on loan in 2010. He was born in Frimley, Surrey, and is the son of former Manchester Uni ...

and Magnus Eikrem to the award. In September 2010, De Laet joined Championship side

Sheffield United Sheffield United Football Club is a professional football club in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . They are nicknamed "the Blades" due to Sheffield's history of cutlery production. The team have played home games at ...

on a 30-day emergency loan deal after the Blades suffered a defensive injury crisis, with both Chris Morgan and

Rob Kozluk Robert Kozluk (born 5 August 1977) is an English former footballer who played primarily as a right-back. Born in Mansfield he came through the Derby County youth-team ranks before turning professional in 1997 before joining Sheffield United in M ...

ruled out for several weeks. De Laet returned to Old Trafford at the end of his month having made six appearances for the Blades. Ritchie De Laet - Portsmouth

On 17 November 2010, De Laet joined Championship team Preston North End on a 28-day loan after an injury to first-team defender

Callum Davidson Callum Iain Davidson (born 25 June 1976 in Stirling) is a Scottish professional football player and coach. He is the manager of St Johnstone. Davidson played as a left-back for St Johnstone, Blackburn Rovers, Leicester City and Preston North E ...

. On 14 January 2011, De Laet joined Portsmouth of the Championship on loan until the end of the 2010–11 season.

Norwich City loan

On 17 June 2011, De Laet joined newly promoted Premier League side

Norwich City Norwich City Football Club (also known as The Canaries or The Yellows) is an English professional football club based in Norwich, Norfolk. The club competes in the EFL Championship following their relegation from the Premier League in the 20 ...

on loan until the end of the 2011–12 season. He made his debut in a 1–1 draw at

Wigan Athletic Wigan Athletic Football Club () is an English professional association football club based in Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. The team competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1932, ...

, conceding the penalty for the Wigan goal. However, he redeemed himself with a number of excellent blocks to retain the scoreline. On 21 August, he scored his first goal for Norwich against former club Stoke City in a 1–1 draw. This was also De Laet's first senior goal. De Laet was sidelined with a back injury whilst at Norwich. He made his return from injury on 27 December 2011 against Tottenham Hotspur in a 2–0 loss. On 18 January 2012, he returned to United after Norwich cancelled his loan.

Leicester City

On 14 May 2012, De Laet signed a three-year deal with

. He was joined at Leicester by fellow United player

Matty James Matthew Lee James (born 22 July 1991) is an English professional footballer who plays for Championship club Bristol City. His regular position is in midfield, but he can play in defence when required. James began his career with Manchester Unit ...

, who signed on the same day. De Laet scored his first goal for Leicester shortly before half time in the 6–1 thrashing of

Huddersfield Town Huddersfield Town Association Football Club is a professional football club based in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . The team have played home games at the Kirklees Stadium since moving from Leeds Road in 1994. Th ...

on 1 January 2013. He scored his second just four days later, against

Burton Albion Burton Albion Football Club is a professional association football club in the town of Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, England. The team compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The club moved its home grou ...

in the first round of the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

. De Laet ended his first season with Leicester having played 46 games and scoring twice in all competitions, steering City into the Championship play-offs. In the 2013–14 season, he helped Leicester gain promotion back to the top flight playing regularly in the first team once more. De Laet featured 35 times scoring two goals. In the 2015–16 season, De Laet started the first seven games for Leicester, scoring his last goal for the club in a 3–2 win over Aston Villa on 13 September 2015. He eventually lost his place in the first team to

Danny Simpson Daniel Peter Simpson (born 4 January 1987) is an English professional footballer who last played as a right-back for Championship side Bristol City. A product of the Manchester United academy, Simpson played on loan for Royal Antwerp, Sunderla ...

Middlesbrough loan

On 1 February 2016, De Laet joined Championship side

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

on loan for the remainder of the 2015–16 season. He helped Middlesbrough achieve promotion on the final day of the season, after a 1–1 draw with

Brighton & Hove Albion Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club (), commonly referred to simply as Brighton, is an English professional football club based in the city of Brighton and Hove. They compete in the Premier League, the top tier of the English football league ...

. This meant that De Laet achieved the unique feat of playing with a club winning promotion from the Championship and then winning the

title, courtesy of his 12 league appearances for Leicester in the same season.

Aston Villa

On 23 August 2016, De Laet signed a three-year deal with Championship club Aston Villa. On 14 September 2016, he was injured in the 67th minute in a 1–1 league game against Brentford. Scans later revealed the injury to be a season-ending one.

Royal Antwerp loan

On 23 January 2018, De Laet rejoined

on loan for the remainder of the

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and ...

Melbourne City loan

In September 2018, De Laet completed a loan move to Melbourne City of the A-League, reuniting with former Manchester United reserve team manager

Warren Joyce Warren Garton Joyce (born 20 January 1965) is an English football manager and former player, who is currently the lead coach of Nottingham Forest F.C.'s U18 Squad. As a player, he played in The Football League for Bolton Wanderers, Preston ...

. De Laet, who was stand-in captain at the time, scored on debut in the Melbourne Derby in front of 40,504 supporters, pouncing on a rebound in the 40th minute after a controversial penalty, awarded by the

VAR Var or VAR may refer to: Places * Var (department), a department of France * Var (river), France * Vār, Iran, village in West Azerbaijan Province, Iran * Var, Iran (disambiguation), other places in Iran * Vár, a village in Obreja commune, Ca ...

, was missed. In early 2019, Joyce shifted De Laet from defense to centre-forward with Ritchie scoring two goals in this position on 22 January 2019 against

Western Sydney Wanderers Western Sydney Wanderers Football Club (colloquially known as Western Sydney, or simply as Wanderers) is an Australian professional soccer club based in the Western Sydney region of Sydney, New South Wales. It competes in the country's premier ...

as City defeated the Wanderers 4-3. De Laet's first goal in this match set a new club record for fastest ever goal in the A-League. Ritchie latched onto a loose back-pass from Keanu Baccus, took one touch to round WSW goalkeeper

Nicholas Suman Nicholas Suman (born 28 February 2000), is an Australian professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Macarthur. Club career Western Sydney Wanderers In May 2017, Suman signed a one-year scholarship contract with Western Sydney Wandere ...

, before slotting the ball into the back of an empty net on the 30-second mark. The time beat Richard Garcia's previous club record of 34 seconds, set when the team was still named Melbourne Heart prior to the 2014

City Football Group City Football Group Limited (CFG) is a holding company that administers association football clubs. The group is owned by three organisations; of which 81% is majority owned by Newton Investment and Development LLC, 18% by the American firm Si ...

takeover. The following day, De Laet revealed in an interview that the role of striker was not unfamiliar to him as Joyce used to play him in that role at the Manchester United Reserves when he was a youngster. He was released by Aston Villa at the end of the 2018–19 season.

Return to Royal Antwerp

On 29 June 2019, after he was released by Aston Villa, it was announced by

that he would sign permanently with the club that his career began at.

International career

A few days after his Manchester United debut, De Laet was called up for

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 ...

Kirin Cup The is an association football tournament organised in Japan by the Kirin Brewery Company. The host, Japan, is a participant in every edition. The tournament was founded in 1978 then known as Japan Cup (International competition which nationa ...

matches against

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

and Japan. He made his debut in the match against Chile on 29 May 2009. De Laet was a regular for the under-21s in the 2011 European Championship qualifying.

Career statistics

Honours

Leicester City *

: 2015–16 * Football League Championship: 2013–14 Middlesbrough *Football League Championship runner-up: 2015–16 Royal Antwerp *

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 ...

: 2019–20 Belgian Cup, 2019–20 Individual * Denzil Haroun Reserve Team Player of the Year: 2009–10 Manchester United F.C. season, 2009–10

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:De Laet, Ritchie 1988 births Living people Footballers from Antwerp Belgian footballers Association football defenders Royal Antwerp F.C. players Stoke City F.C. players Wrexham A.F.C. players Manchester United F.C. players Sheffield United F.C. players Preston North End F.C. players Portsmouth F.C. players Norwich City F.C. players Leicester City F.C. players Aston Villa F.C. players Melbourne City FC players Belgian First Division A players Belgian First Division B players Premier League players English Football League players National League (English football) players Marquee players (A-League Men) Belgium under-21 international footballers Belgium international footballers Belgian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in England Expatriate soccer players in Australia Belgian expatriate sportspeople in England Belgian expatriate sportspeople in Australia