Stijn Stijnen (; born 7 April 1981) is a Belgian retired 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 played as a

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

, and the current manager of Patro Eisden Maasmechelen. He played in 189

Belgian Pro League 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 tea ...

games during thirteen seasons, mainly with Club Brugge with which he won nine major titles, including two national championships.

Club career

Born in Hasselt,

Limburg Limburg or Limbourg may refer to: Regions * Limburg (Belgium), a province since 1839 in the Flanders region of Belgium * Limburg (Netherlands), a province since 1839 in the south of the Netherlands * Diocese of Limburg, Roman Catholic Diocese in ...

, Stijnen moved from

K.S.C. Hasselt Koninklijke Sporting Club Hasselt was a Belgian football club. The matricule No. 37 was erased in 2001 after the merge with K.S.K. Kermt to become K.S.K. Kermt-Hasselt. The club played one season in the first division in 1979–80. Excelsior ...

to Club Brugge KV in 2000, aged 19, and became the club's first stand-in for veteran

Dany Verlinden Daniël 'Dany' Verlinden (born 15 August 1963) is a Belgian retired professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Often referred to as ''De Muur'' ("the wall"), he spent most of his career at Club Brugge, having played into his 40s. Dany ...

– when the latter retired at 41, he backed up Tomislav Butina. On 18 April 2003, he made his debut in

the league ''The League'' is an American sitcom that aired on FX and later FXX from October 29, 2009, to December 9, 2015, for a total of seven seasons. The series, set in Chicago, Illinois, is a semi-improvised comedy show about a fantasy football leagu ...

, in a 3–0 away win against

K.R.C. Genk Koninklijke Racing Club Genk (), commonly known as KRC Genk, Racing Genk or simply Genk, is a Belgian professional football club based in the city of Genk in Belgian Limburg. Racing Genk plays in the Belgian Pro League and have won four cham ...

. However, his big breakthrough came in the 2005–06 season, when he replaced the injured Butina several times; some strong performances (including the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competi ...

2–1 home loss to Juventus in the group stage) made him the undisputed first-choice onwards. In the 2006–07 campaign, Stijnen was between the posts as Brugge won the

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 ...

1–0 against

Standard Liège Royal Standard de Liège, commonly referred to as Standard Liège (; nl, Standard Luik ; german: Standard Lüttich ) or simply Standard in Belgium, is a Belgian professional football club based in the city of Liège. They are one of the most ...

, but the club only finished sixth in the domestic league. He never played in less than 31 league games in the following three seasons, but the ''Blue and Black'' did not manage to win any silverware. Stijnen retired in the 2013 summer at the age of 32, after two top flight seasons with

Beerschot AC Koninklijke Beerschot Antwerpen Club (), simply known as Beerschot AC, was a Belgian football club based in southern Antwerp. Beerschot played in the Belgian Pro League from 1999–2000 (as Germinal Beerschot) until 2012–13, when they were ...

. He returned to youth club Hasselt subsequently, after being appointed

director of football A sporting director, or director of sport, is an executive management position in a sports club. The role is well known as a manager role for European football clubs, which are sometime also "sports clubs", offering many types of sports. The sport ...

International career

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 ...

manager

René Vandereycken René Vandereycken (born 22 July 1953) is a Belgian football manager and a former player. He was the head coach of the Belgium national team from 1 January 2006 to 7 April 2009. Club career Vandereycken was born in Spalbeek. He played for C ...

noticed Stijnen's performances at club level, and handed him his debut in a friendly against

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...

on 11 May 2006. In March 2007, before an

UEFA Euro 2008 The 2008 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2008 or simply Euro 2008, was the 13th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football tournament contested by the member nations of UEFA (the Union of European ...

qualifier In linguistics, a modifier is an optional element in phrase structure or clause structure which ''modifies'' the meaning of another element in the structure. For instance, the adjective "red" acts as a modifier in the noun phrase "red ball", provi ...

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

, he reportedly claimed his teammates should take opponent star

Cristiano Ronaldo Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro (; born 5 February 1985) is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays as a forward and captains the Portugal national team. He is currently a free agent. Widely regarded as one of the greatest p ...

out of the game in an early stage, by all means necessary; eventually the home side won 4–0, with Cristiano Ronaldo scoring twice, and the Manchester United player accepted the Belgian's apologies. Stijnen retired from international play in October 2009, after collecting 30 caps.

Career statistics

Honours

Club Brugge *

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 te ...

: 2002–03, 2004–05 *

: 2002 Belgian Cup Final, 2001–02, 2006–07 Belgian Cup, 2006–07 *

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 ...

: 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 *

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 ...

: 2000, 2001, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 *

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 ...

: 2005

References

External links

Club Brugge profile
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Stijnen, Stijn 1981 births Living people Sportspeople from Hasselt Footballers from Limburg (Belgium) Belgian footballers Association football goalkeepers Belgian Pro League players Club Brugge KV players Beerschot A.C. players Belgium international footballers Belgian football managers K. Patro Eisden Maasmechelen managers