Belgium hit rock bottom after Euro 2000 failure, ripped their game apart and rebuilt from scratch
HOW RED DEVILS WENT FROM ALSO-RANS TO NO.1 IN WORLD
THE sight of Belgium competing at major tournaments is now as commonplace as a diner polishing off a plate of moules et frites in Brussels’ Grand Place.
But it was not too long ago that the country, who are now No.1 in the FIFA rankings, were making a dog’s dinner of qualifying, let alone winning them.
The Red Devils missed five successive major tournaments between 2004 and 2012.
England, meanwhile, have missed just one since 1994.
When they meet in Leuven this evening, though, Roberto Martinez (below) and his men will be the big favourites.
And for good reason.
After being embarrassed in the group stage of Euro 2000, a tournament they hosted alongside Holland, Belgium went back to the drawing board.
And they effectively tore up everything that had gone before.
Employing a team of scientists, academics and renowned youth football coaches, they pored over data and leaned heavily on previous research to come up with a formula that would transform Les Diables Rouges.
Werner Helsen, a professor in motor learning and control and performance training at the University of Leuven, found himself at the heart of this new project.
“After Euro 2000 it was pretty clear the Belgian football was in a bad way,” Helsen said.
“We had to go back to the start, we had to build something that would help us to bring through the players of the future.
“We pretty much had to start from scratch.”
It was a daunting prospect but one that they wasted no time in beginning. No sooner had France been crowned Euro 2000 winners, than work started on ensuring that Belgium would one day follow them.
Leaning heavily on the work of Anders Ericsson, a professor at Florida State University, they were struck by his findings on the hours of work put in by top performers at the Berlin Music Academy.
Helsen became the first person to publish a theory relating to his findings and place it in a sporting context. The notion that 10,000 hours of practice was necessary to produce the footballers that could take Belgium to the top of the world game took hold.
“It wasn’t just a football project, it was one that involved people from across the Belgian government too,” said Helsen.
“Everyone needed to buy into it. If they didn’t, then the dream of getting the country’s football team to where we wanted it would have been dead in the water.”
Special sports schools were introduced, which allowed footballers – including the likes of Kevin De Bruyne and Romelu Lukaku – to get hours and hours of time on the pitch alongside their regular studies.
Junior matches would be four against four until the age of 11 or 12, when they would increase to eight against eight.
The national team and other Belgian age groups would also begin playing in a 4-3-3 formation.
It took time for the results to be seen but the success of the youth teams suggested that it was working.
In 2007, Belgium reached the semi- finals of the
Un d e r- 17 European Championships.
The following year, the country’s U-23s reached the same stage of the Beijing Olympics.
It would be another six years before Belgium resurfaced at a major tournament – reaching the quarter-finals of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
But by that time their players would be among the most highly- prized in world football.
“We have come a long way,” said Helsen.
“But we need a big one. We need to go and win a World Cup or a European Championships.
“Then we can say the programme has been a complete success.”