Geert De Vlieger (; born 16 October 1971) is a Belgian former 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, rugb ...

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 ...

Career

De Vlieger was born in

Dendermonde Dendermonde (; french: Termonde, ) is a city in the Flemish province of East Flanders in Belgium. The municipality comprises the city of Dendermonde and the towns of Appels, Baasrode, Grembergen, Mespelare, Oudegem, Schoonaarde, and Sint-Gilli ...

. He started his career in his home country playing for

Anderlecht Anderlecht (, ) is one of the 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium. Located in the south-western part of the region, it is bordered by the City of Brussels, Forest, Molenbeek-Saint-Jean, and Saint-Gilles, as well as the ...

and

Beveren Beveren () is a municipality in the Belgian province of East Flanders which comprises the towns of Beveren, Doel, Haasdonk, Kallo, Kieldrecht, Melsele, Verrebroek and Vrasene. The port of the Waasland (Dutch: ''Waaslandhaven'') is in Beveren ...

before moving to the Netherlands and playing for Willem II for four years between 2000 and 2004. He played his first international 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 ...

in 1999 and won 43 caps for his country. He was the second choice goalkeeper for the

UEFA Euro 2000 The 2000 UEFA European Football Championship, also known as Euro 2000, was the 11th UEFA European Championship, a football tournament held every four years and organised by UEFA, the sport's governing body in Europe. The finals tournament wa ...

behind starter

Filip De Wilde Filip Alfons De Wilde (born 5 July 1964) is a former Belgian professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. During a 23-year professional career he played mainly with Anderlecht, appearing in nearly 400 official games in two different spel ...

, but then became the number 1 starter for the

2002 FIFA World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams organized by ...

replacing the latter after De Wilde's poor performances during the Euro 2000. De Vlieger signed with

Manchester City Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

in June 2004, but due to an achilles tendon injury he sustained, he missed the entirety of the 2004–05 season and did not play a single game during his two seasons in England. In June 2006, he signed for

Zulte Waregem Sportvereniging Zulte Waregem (), commonly known as Zulte Waregem or by their nickname Essevee (), is a Belgian professional football club based in Waregem, West Flanders. Zulte Waregem plays in the Belgian First Division A. Their highest finish a ...

to make a comeback in the

Belgian First Division A 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 Belgian First Division A, 2020 ...

. On 30 May 2008, De Vlieger signed a one-year contract with

Club Brugge (), known simply as Club Brugge (in English also: ''Club Bruges''), is a Belgian professional football club based in Bruges, Belgium. It was founded in 1891 and its home ground is the Jan Breydel Stadium, which has a capacity of 29,062.

as the backup behind

Stijn Stijnen Stijn Stijnen (; born 7 April 1981) is a Belgian retired professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper, and the current manager of Patro Eisden Maasmechelen. He played in 189 Belgian Pro League games during thirteen seasons, mainly with Cl ...

, as former backup

Glenn Verbauwhede Glenn Verbauwhede (born 19 May 1985) is a Belgian former professional football goalkeeper and a football agent. Career Verbauwhede joined Club Brugge from KSV Waregem in 1997. He was promoted to the first-team squad in 2004. In summer 2008, he ...

had been loaned out to

Kortrijk Kortrijk ( , ; vls, Kortryk or ''Kortrik''; french: Courtrai ; la, Cortoriacum), sometimes known in English as Courtrai or Courtray ( ), is a Belgian city and municipality in the Flemish province of West Flanders. It is the capital and larg ...

. He announced his retirement from football in February 2011 at age 39.

Honours

Beveren *

Second Division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

1990–91 Year 199 ( CXCIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was sometimes known as year 952 '' Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 199 for this year has been used since t ...

Anderlecht *

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 ...

runner-up: 1996–97 Belgium * FIFA Fair Play Trophy:

2002 World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial football world championship for men's national teams organized by FIFA. It was held from 31 May to 30 June 2002 at sites in South Korea an ...

Individual * Best Belgian Footballer Abroad: 2001

References

External links

* Living people 1971 births Association football goalkeepers Belgian footballers Belgium international footballers Flemish sportspeople Belgian Pro League players Belgian First Division B players Eredivisie players K.S.K. Beveren players R.S.C. Anderlecht players K.R.C. Zuid-West-Vlaanderen players Willem II (football club) players Manchester City F.C. players S.V. Zulte Waregem players Club Brugge KV players UEFA Euro 2000 players 2002 FIFA World Cup players Belgian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in the Netherlands Belgian expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Expatriate footballers in England Belgian expatriate sportspeople in England {{Belgium-footy-goalkeeper-stub