Gert Verheyen (; born 20 September 1970) is a Belgian retired

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 ...

and manager, who was last in charge of Oostende. In a 20-year professional career, he was mainly associated with

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

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.

(especially the latter), scoring over 200 official goals for both clubs combined; he was known to have rather few technical skills, relying on a hard-working approach. Verheyen represented

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 two World Cups and one European Championship. His father Jan was also player and international for Belgium from 1965 till 1976.

Club career

Born in

Hoogstraten Hoogstraten () is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Antwerp. The municipality comprises Hoogstraten, Meer, Meerle, Meersel-Dreef, Minderhout and Wortel (Meersel-Dreef includes the northernmost point in Belgium). Hoogstraten ...

Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,

, Verheyen started playing professionally with

Lierse SK Koninklijke Lierse Sportkring (), often simply known as Lierse, was a Belgian professional football club from the city of Lier in the Antwerp province. Lierse have won four championship titles and two Belgian Cups. Lierse was one of the six ...

, scoring ten

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 Assoc ...

goals in his two season-spell, as he was not yet aged 18. In the 1988 summer he moved to

R.S.C. Anderlecht ; french: Les Mauves et Blancs) , short name = R.S.C.A. , founded = , ground = Constant Vanden Stock Stadium , capacity = 22,500 , owntitle = Chairman , owner = Wouter Vandenhaute , manager = Brian Riemer ...

, where he did not have a good scoring record, also appearing rarely in his first two years. In 1992, Verheyen signed with

Club Brugge KV (), 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.

, where he would remain for the next 14 years, rarely missing a game and netting in double digits in ten of those campaigns, with the side collecting four leagues and two

cups CUPS (formerly an acronym for Common UNIX Printing System) is a modular printing system for Unix-like computer operating systems which allows a computer to act as a print server. A computer running CUPS is a host that can accept print job ...

. In October 2000 he was expected to move to England with

Ipswich Town Ipswich Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Ipswich, Suffolk, England. They play in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The club was founded in 1878 but did not turn professio ...

, but the deal eventually fell through. After more than 500 overall appearances for Brugge (with 195 goals), Verheyen retired on 5 May 2006, becoming a reserve team trainer at the club in 2006–07 and quitting football subsequently at the season's end.

International career

Verheyen earned exactly 50 caps for the Belgium national team during eight years, scoring ten times. He was selected for the 1998 and

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament has ...

s as well as

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 ...

, the latter played on home soil. Verheyen's was controversially sent off at the 1998 World Cup in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, as the Red Devils led 2–0 against

Mexico Mexico (Spanish language, Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a List of sovereign states, country in the southern portion of North America. It is borders of Mexico, bordered to the north by the United States; to the so ...

. The foul resulted in a

penalty Penalty or The Penalty may refer to: Sports * Penalty (golf) * Penalty (gridiron football) * Penalty (ice hockey) * Penalty (rugby) * Penalty (rugby union) * Penalty kick (association football) * Penalty shoot-out (association football) * Penal ...

, and the match ended a 2–2 draw; despite the incident, he continued to be a regular in the next few years.

Honours

Player

Anderlecht * Belgian First Division: 1990–91 *

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 ...

: List of Belgian Cup finals, 1988–89 * UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, European Cup Winners' Cup: runners-up 1989–90 * Bruges Matins: 1988 Club Brugge * Belgian First Division: 1995–96, 1997–98, 2002–03, 2004–05 * Belgian Cup: 1994–95, 1995–96, 2001–02, 2003–04; runners-up: 1997–98, 2004–05 *

Belgian Supercup 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 champi ...

: 1992, 1994, 1996, 1998,

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A ...

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight ...

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; " Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discover ...

* Bruges Matins: 1992, 1993, 1995, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2004, 2006 *

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 i ...

: 1995, 2005 Belgium * FIFA Fair Play Trophy: 2002 World Cup

References

External links

Club Brugge archives
*
Official fansite
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Verheyen, Gert 1970 births Living people People from Hoogstraten Footballers from Antwerp Province Belgian footballers Association football forwards Belgian First Division A players Belgian First Division B players Lierse S.K. players R.S.C. Anderlecht players Club Brugge KV players Belgium international footballers 1998 FIFA World Cup players 2002 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Euro 2000 players Belgian football managers K.V. Oostende managers Club Brugge KV non-playing staff Hoogstraten VV players