Nicolas Robert Christian Lombaerts (born 20 March 1985) 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, rugby ...

who played as a centre-back and current assistant manager of K.A.A. Gent.

Career

Club

Brugge

Lombaerts joined Club Brugge at young age where he went through all youth ranks. He claimed various league titles at young age as he was part of a strong generation at Brugge, with players such as Jason Vandelannoite,

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 ...

and

Thomas Matton Thomas Matton (born 24 October 1985) is a Belgian former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder. Career Matton got his youth training mainly at Club Brugge. He was a member of the generation of players such as Jason Vande ...

Gent

As his ambition was to play in the starting lineup of a first division team as soon as possible and Club Brugge was not able to guarantee this, he moved to

Gent Gent is a shortened form of the word gentleman. It may also refer to: * Ghent (Dutch language, Dutch: Gent), a Belgian city ** K.A.A. Gent, a football club from Ghent ** K.R.C. Gent, a football club from Ghent ** Gent RFC, a rugby club in Ghen ...

where he soon was able to play almost every match in the

2005–06 Belgian First Division The 2005–06 season of the Belgian Jupiler League began on August 5, 2005 and ended on May 5, 2006. Anderlecht won the title on the last day of competition. Promoted teams These teams were promoted from the second division at the start of th ...

and also got his first appearance for the Belgium national football team. Apart from football, he was at that point still studying

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

Ghent University Ghent University ( nl, Universiteit Gent, abbreviated as UGent) is a public research university located in Ghent, Belgium. Established before the state of Belgium itself, the university was founded by the Dutch King William I in 1817, when th ...

. Several times he was selected for the Belgian national youth teams such as the

Belgium national under-21 football team The Belgium national under-21 football team is the national under-21 football team of Belgium and is controlled by the Belgian Football Association. The team competes in the European Under-21 Football Championship, held every two years. Their bi ...

. Highlights were the 2004 UEFA European Under-19 Football Championship and the

2007 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship The UEFA European Under-21 Championship 2007 were held from 10 June 2007 to 23 June 2007. It was the 16th staging of UEFA's European Under-21 Championship. Summary For the first time, a host nation was chosen ahead of the competition – the Neth ...

Zenit

In July 2007, Lombaerts chose a lucrative transfer to the FC Zenit Saint Petersburg in

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

. At that point he quit his studies and chose for a football career. Zenit eventually won its first Russian league title with the

2007 Russian Premier League The 2007 Russian Premier League was the 16th season of the Russian Football Championship, and the sixth under the current Russian Premier League name. The league was sponsored by insurance company Rosgosstrakh. The season started on 10 March 20 ...

. At the beginning of 2008, Lombaerts was sidelined for over half a year as the result of a knee injury. He received knee injury in UEFA Cup game against Villarreal CF during the attack that led to the only away goal against the Spanish team. His actions in this game (goal assist by header) later on have been regarded by Zenit fans as one of the most important steps in the subsequent victory in UEFA Cup. In the following games without him, his team won the

2007–08 UEFA Cup The 2007–08 UEFA Cup was the 37th edition of the UEFA Cup, UEFA's second-tier club football tournament. The final was played at the City of Manchester Stadium, Manchester, England on 14 May 2008 between Rangers of Scotland and Zenit Saint ...

and he also missed the 2008 Summer Olympics where Belgium finished fourth. Lombaerts finally made his return to Zenit on 19 July 2009, coming on in the 71st minute for

Aleksei Ionov Aleksei Sergeyevich Ionov (russian: Алексей Сергеевич Ионов; born 18 February 1989) is a Russian professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Midfielder#Winger, winger for FC Krasnodar, Krasnodar and the Russ ...

against Terek Grozny. Even though Zenit were defeated 3-2, Lombaerts described the happiness of taking the pitch again as similar to "a small child's joy when walking into a shop full of sweets." He then quickly became a fixture in defense for

caretaker Caretaker may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''The Caretaker'' (film), a 1963 adaptation of the play ''The Caretaker'' * '' The Caretakers'', a 1963 American film set in a mental hospital * Caretaker, a character in the 1974 film '' ...

Anatoliy Davydov, helping Zenit win six consecutive matches to get back into the title hunt. On 29 November 2009, Lombaerts scored the game-winning goal against rival

Spartak Moscow Spartak Moscow may refer to the following teams based or formerly based in Moscow, Russia: * FC Spartak Moscow, an association football club * HC Spartak Moscow, a professional ice hockey team * Spartak GM Moscow, a semi-professional rugby club * WB ...

to put Zenit into the

2010-11 UEFA Champions League 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

as third-place team in Russia. On 5 July 2010, Lombaerts signed a four-year contract to remain with Zenit.

Oostende

On 24 March 2017, it was announced that after 10 seasons with Zenit, Lombaerts will return to Belgium for 2017–18 season, signing with K.V. Oostende. He played his last, 289th official game for Zenit on 17 May 2017 in a game against

FC Krasnodar FC Krasnodar is a Russian professional football club based in Krasnodar that plays in the Russian Premier League. The club was founded in 2008. In 2009, the club was promoted to the Russian First Division, the second highest division of the R ...

and was honoured by the club. On 30 July 2019 it was announced, that the club wanted to terminate his contract in exchange for a severance payment of 300,000 euros and was sent to the B-team. The club was in financial problems after owner Marc Coucke left the club, why they wanted to part ways with Lombaerts and his heavy wages.

International

He has made his debut in full internationals in May 2006 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 ...

, and played 3 matches in Euro 2008 qualifying. On 26 May 2014, in a pre-World Cup match against

Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...

, Lombaerts came on as a substitute in the 77th minute for

Jan Vertonghen Jan Bert Lieve Vertonghen (born 24 April 1987) is a Belgian professional footballer who plays for Belgian club Anderlecht and the Belgium national team. Mainly a central defender, he can also play as a left-back. Vertonghen began his senior car ...

. As Belgium had already made the 6 permitted substitutions, the match was therefore declared invalid on 4 June.

Coaching career

On 28 May 2021 it was confirmed, that Lombaerts would become the assistant manager of Hein Vanhaezebrouck at his former club K.A.A. Gent from the start of the 2021-22 season.AA Gent verrast: Nicolas Lombaerts keert terug bij Buffalo’s als assistent van Hein Vanhaezebrouck
hln.be, 28 May 2021

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Belgium's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Lombaerts goal''.

Career honours

Zenit St. Petersburg *

Russian Premier League The Russian Premier League (RPL; russian: Российская премьер-лига; РПЛ), also written as Russian Premier Liga, is the top division professional association football league in Russia. It was established at the end of 2001 ...

: 2007, 2010, 2011-12, 2014–15 * Russian Cup: 2010 *

Russian Super Cup The Russian Super Cup () is a one-match football annual competition. Its official sponsored name is ''OLIMPBET Russian Supercup'' (). The two participating clubs are the Russian Premier League champions and the Russian Cup winners. If the Premie ...

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

, 2011 *

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...

: 2007-08 *

UEFA Super Cup The UEFA Super Cup is an annual super cup football match organised by UEFA and contested by the winners of the two main European club competitions; the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League. The competition's official name was original ...

Notes

External links

Profile at the official FC Zenit St. Petersburg website
*
Belgium Stats
at Belgian FA {{DEFAULTSORT:Lombaerts, Nicolas 1985 births Living people Flemish sportspeople Footballers from Bruges Association football defenders Belgian footballers Belgian expatriate footballers Belgium youth international footballers Belgium under-21 international footballers Belgium international footballers K.A.A. Gent players FC Zenit Saint Petersburg players UEFA Cup winning players K.V. Oostende players Russian Premier League players Belgian Pro League players 2014 FIFA World Cup players Belgian expatriate sportspeople in Russia Expatriate footballers in Russia