Golden

Why Belgian Football is More Than One Generation

Phil Spencer

• Publisher: Pitch Publishing Ltd
• eBook ISBN:
  9781801502696
• Year: 2022

In 2018, the Belgian national football team finished third in the FIFA World Cup and reached number one in the FIFA/Coca-Cola Men's Rankings. With a squad boasting the likes of Eden Hazard, Kevin De Bruyne and Romelu Lukaku they possess some of the world's best players. However, such success is more than a flash in the pan. This generation is just the latest wave of talent the nation has produced. The first book of its kind in English, Golden: Why Belgian Football is More Than One Generation is the definitive story of football in Belgium. It relives the sport's growth and the European glories of Belgian clubs, charting their untold triumphs against the biggest names. It dives into the recent production of world-class players in its academies, amid the murkiness of financial irregularities and match-fixing. It tells the tale of how a nation with a population of under 12 million has continued to make its mark on world football.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• The English Football Pub
• 1. Origins
• 2. Purple
• 3. Le Football Champagne
• 4. Roger the Shame
• 5. Elvis
• 6. The Austrian
• 7. The Mystic and the Snake
• 8. Bewildered
• 9. Tainted Glory
• 10. Heysel
• 11. A Summer in Toluca
• 12. Malinwa
• 13. Enzo
• 14. Que Sera, Sera
• 15. Jean-Marc
• 16. The Fall
• 17. A New Approach
• 18. Failure?
• Appendix
• Bibliography
• Photos